Good Food Finance & Data Systems Integration in U.N. Science Briefing hosted by the President of the General Assembly
On Wednesday, April 12, the President of the General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi hosted a day-long Special Plenary Science Briefing for the General Assembly, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The event was remarkable in part because the entire day was focused on one worthy, practical, and world-building goal: establishing a new and trusted mechanism for delivering science-based insights and data to decision-makers, as a routine part of the business of the General Assembly.
Ensuring all nations have ready access to the best available scientific data, one speaker said, would allow diplomats to “elucidate and clarify their positions”. The goal of achieving that kind of evidence-based clarification of facts, interests, and positions, would be to get beyond entrenched politics and focus on work that improves lives and makes peace among nations more accessible and more durable.
Olav Kjørven, the EAT Foundation’s Senior Director of Strategy and incoming Chief Executive Officer—and a former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Development Programme—presented the EAT-Lancet Commission 2.0 and offered its work as a contribution to improved, science-based policy deliberations and negotiations at the UN. Open global consultations will feed stakeholder insights into the work of the Commission.
He also presented the work of the Good Food Finance Network, including its effort towards building integrated data systems to enable responsible investment and policy decisions, and its ongoing work to create a cooperative financing platform anchored in the best available science, to drive food systems transformation.
The Integrated Data Systems Initiative, linked to the platform and supported by the Good Food Finance Network, will produce a blueprint others can use, and then begin exploratory integrations in 2024.
The Good Food Finance Network is also represented at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, where core partners and supporting partner institutions are meeting to identify best-case pathways for establishing this new good food finance acceleration mechanism.
The next opportunity for direct follow-up on this convergence of science, food, finance, and multilateral cooperation is Good Food Finance Week, when GFFN partners will host sessions on public finance, private sector investment, data systems, landscapes, cities, and more.
Read more about the structural reforms being considered at the World Bank and IMF, the asks stakeholders from 31 countries have sent to World Bank executive directors, and the capital to communities approach to climate-resilient finance, here.
For information about Good Food Finance Week, and to register for specific sessions, go to goodfood.finance/events