Investing in the Future of Food and Agriculture: How systems approaches can unlock impact

Email

GDPRD/Michelle Tang: The recently released FAO report Transforming Food and Agriculture through a Systems Approach offers a practical framework for joined-up action. What makes this report particularly timely, and why should the donor community act now?

FAO/Corinna Hawkes: There is unprecedented attention on agrifood systems right now, with much more focus on how they can address many of the world's most significant challenges.

We know that agrifood systems are an engine to power economies, jobs, nature, climate change mitigation, healthier diets, gender equality, and ultimately, a more food-secure world. And we are seeing more national governments, the private sector, civil society, activists, communities, and donors recognize this opportunity.

But people who care deeply about agrifood systems are often focused on different goals or work in different parts of the system. What the report does is set out practical actions needed to drive progress towards all these goals, regardless of entry point, by working in balance and with greater efficiency, rather than advancing one objective at the expense of another.

We see a lot of action out there to leverage this opportunity, but also a lot of fragmentation. If we want to collectively make the most of this moment, we need to connect these fragmented efforts and do so at scale. We need to ensure the money is incentivizing this systems approach and that is why the donor community needs to act now.

Michelle: Considering current global discussions on ODA reform and shifts in the international financial architecture, how can a systems approach help donors navigate and influence these transitions?

Corinna: We are seeing money moving out of funding for food security and food systems and at the same time of global debates around how the international finance architecture should change.  A systems approach offers donors a way to navigate this transition – guiding how the nature of financing could evolve while ensuring impact with fewer resources.

If it is to truly support agrifood system transformation, financing and investment need to incentivize the shift away from fragmentation towards transformation – by becoming more coordinated across sectors to deliver co-benefits, more flexible in responding to complexity, and more focused on long-term in addition to short-term imperatives.

These are the three shifts we call “systems investment” – one of the six core elements of a systems approach we set out in the report. We consider shifts in financing as core to a systems approach. These shifts need to reinforce others: in thinking, knowledge governance, action, and learning. Without the investment component, we simply won’t achieve the results we all want to see.

Most donors already recognize the need to be more coordinated, more flexible, and more long-term in their approach. One way this report can help donors is by offering a practical lens to assess investment proposals. For example: Does the proposal include portfolios of actions that address the underlying, interlinked causes of problems and manage trade-offs? Does it include processes for ongoing measurement of systems change, enabling adaptation in the face of uncertainty? Does it allow enough time for the relationship-building needed for effective cross-sector collaboration, which takes time?

This lens helps donors identify what will drive real systemic change, and build stronger, more effective partnerships with those they fund.

Michelle: You noted that “most agrifood systems were not originally designed to address today’s complex and interlinked challenges.” How can the Donor Platform support collective donor action in changing how decisions are made and investments prioritized?

Corinna: The Donor Platform has such an important role. It can convene donors not just to talk about how much funding is available, but also how we spend it. The Platform can convene conversations around more flexible financing, building collaboration into donor strategies, and being more long-term.

That every donor has their own priorities, whether it be climate, gender or food security, will remain a challenge. Naturally every donor has their own goals, often shaped by political considerations.

The Platform can help by showing how these different, and sometimes even competing, goals can fit together. It can help donors come together to develop a shared vision – a key part of systems thinking – to understand interconnections between different priorities. This allows donors to identify how they can work better together to achieve these goals, even where mandates differ.

This is critical at the global level, but even more so at the country level, where identifying specific roles and interlinkages becomes a very practical way to achieve more with less.

The Donor Platform could also help by identifying what information, evidence and incentives donors need to shift the ways they finance, especially as the overall resource base shrinks. For example: Would cost-benefit analysis of systems-based approaches be useful? Or relevant KPIs? Or real-life examples? Understanding these needs would be very beneficial and is a role I believe the Donor Platform is well placed to play.

Michelle: The Donor Platform’s White Paper on Financing Agrifood Systems for People, Planet and Prosperity also highlights the need for systemic transformation. What are the synergies between these two reports?

Corinna: It's a great piece of work, and very clear. Both the White Paper and the FAO report push for systemic transformation of agrifood systems, and they complement each other well.

What I like about the White Paper is how it identifies the key priority areas to unlock investment. The FAO report then shows how that investment needs to be allocated differently to bring about transformation. Again, it's not just how much money you have, but how you spend it.

For example, if you unlock investment but don't build learning-by-doing into the process, you risk funding a project that looks great on paper but fails because the system behaves in unpredictable ways. Agrifood systems are dynamic and complex.

Two priorities stand out in both reports: collaborative financing agreements and measuring what matters. Fragmented financing is inefficient. Collaborative financing is crucial. And measuring systems change, beyond narrow indicators, is essential.

Michelle: What is one takeaway you would like our readers to walk away with?

Corinna: That there are immediate, practical and concrete actions we can take. A systems approach is not some vague, theoretical, complex thing that is “nice to have” when everything else is fixed. It is a practical way to achieve greater impact with fewer resources, and this is exactly the conversation we need right now. Countries and donors are already beginning to take this approach, and we have real examples that show the way.

Interview conducted by Michelle Tang, Secretariat of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD) on 9 September 2025.