1 No poverty

Our Goals

If we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to poverty, climate change and food and nutrition security, the agricultural development community will have to work collectively with the world’s 700 million small-scale farmers by 2030 to transform the way food is produced, processed and consumed. Never before have we faced such ambitious goals.

We need to
reach
700
million
small-scale
farmers by
2030

The Global Goals For Sustainable Development
1 No poverty2 Zero hunger3 Good health and well-being5 Gender equalityClean water and sanitation8 Decent work and economic growth9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure10 Reduced inequalities12 Responsible consumption and production13 Climate action14 Life below water15 Life on land

Achieving the SDGs will not be easy, as they will have to be met in the context of climate change impacts and other challenges.

Challenges include:

  • Food and nutrition security
  • Increasing resource constraints and trade-offs
  • Massive urbanization
  • An aging farming population
  • A need to rapidly reduce emissions from food systems
  • Dietary shifts

The pace of changes required has never been seen before, and necessitates radical changes as opposed to incremental adjustments—it calls for a transformation.

Transforming food systems means a significant redistribution of the primary factors and results of production within a period of 10 years*. This includes significant changes to, for instance, the structure of landholdings, technologies and their use, capabilities of women and men, and the distribution and dynamics of the population and labor force.

Effectively designed and implemented, such changes can generate multiple benefits, translating into transformed and thriving rural livelihoods and communities.

Benefits can include:

  • Increased resilience
  • Reduced emissions
  • Improved productivity
  • Improved food and nutrition security
  • Reduced poverty
  • Improved health and water quality
  • Empowerment of women and youth

* Adapted from Vermuelen et al. 2018

About the Initiative

Transforming Food Systems Under a Changing Climate is an initiative that brings together leaders in science, business, farming, policy and grassroots organizations to identify pathways for transformation.

Panel of experts

The initiative is led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) together with a wide range of partners that aims to realize a transformation in food systems by mobilizing knowledge and catalyzing action.

The first phase of the initiative will culminate in a Vision and Action report written by a high-level Panel of Experts, building on five work packages.