The UN Food Systems Summit+4 Stocktake in Addis Ababa brought together global leaders to assess progress and accelerate action on transforming food systems. The discussions reflected a strong sense of urgency to act on the hunger crises in Darfur, Gaza, and other hotspots, climate resilience, urgency of finance, constructive inclusion of private sector investment, and attention to research for innovation. During a High-Level Panel on 29 July 2025, Prof. Joachim von Braun had the opportunity to contribute insights about the role of science in ensuring that we transform our agrifood systems to more inclusive, resilience and sustainable systems.
TRANSFORMING FOOD SYSTEMS TOGETHER: ALIGNING ACTION,
INVESTMENT, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Joachim von Braun, Prof. (em.) for Economic and Technological Change, Bonn University, ZEF,
Germany, and President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, The Vatican
High-level Panel UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktaking, 29 July 2025, Addis Ababa
Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen:
As requested, I am pleased to address the question from the chair “could you please tell us about the role of science in ensuring that we transform our agrifood systems to more inclusive, resilience and sustainable systems?”
I am pleased to note that the UN has given science and research a significant role among stakeholders in the UNFSS processes. There can be no stocktaking of the food systems changes without research. Generally speaking, research is critical and essential for two aspects of agrifood systems transformation: first it is providing the insights for accountability, and secondly it is the fundamental force of innovation and thereby for transformation.
Regarding the 1.: research for accountability. Research provides the data and diagnostics for systematic monitoring and assessment of progress or lack thereof. That opens up identifying the causes of performance. We need accountability—not only in how resources are mobilized and aligned, but in how institutions commit to long-term, country-led transformation. I give three important areas for research to contribute to action here:
1) food systems related climate science and fore castings are important to inform resilience policies,
2) modelling the agrifood systems transformations, and its economic and technological drivers gives policy making options for action,
3) Research based data and analyses provide signals of severe hunger, like currently in Darfur and in Gaza. Such research is can be a basis for diagnosis of violations of human rights and of violation of international criminal law and trigger legal policy action. Furthermore, research identifies the long-term consequences of starvation, even intergenerational trauma effects.
Regarding the 2. research is the fundamental force for innovation. For the UNFSS 2021 the international science communities with the Scientific Group for the UNFSS had proposed 7 key areas of science actions – social science with natural science in interdisciplinary approaches:
1) End hunger and improve diets
2) De-risk Food Systems
3) Protect Equitality and Rights
4) Boost biosciences
5) Protect resources, especially soils, biodiversity, seeds, water
6) enhance aquatic foods along with livestock
7) harness advanced technologies in production, processing and mechanization and digitization.
These seven remain relevant priority areas. Our updates from the science perspective that impact agrifood systems must consider transformative change that accelerated in the past few years in basic science, especially AI, remote sensing, and genomics. In these two transformative functions of research – the diagnostics for accountability and the science for innovations – we need to scale up investment, at country level, and in partnership at regional and global levels. Yet, the recent International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Spain rural space and science did not get sufficient attention. Nature.com reports that out of the 130+ actions within the Sevilla Platform, only a small number explicitly mention science. We must call for greater integration of science, technology, and research into the development policy initiatives to ensure sustainable development is informed by scientific evidence and innovation.
The public goods research for agrifood systems, such as protecting the plant genetic resources and soils, and understanding climate change – needs public funding. In addition, Research cooperation for innovation needs new ways to work with corporate innovators and startups along value chains, with a systems perspective.
We shall also look more at successes to facilitate learnings: In the last half decade, indicators of agricultural growth, capital formation, undernourishment and the Global Hunger Index were generally not encouraging, but we can point to countries that were successful in these times as indicated of food systems transformation. Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda, Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia, Mongolia. They all had significant attention to science and innovation.
And there is some further good news: The UN Food Systems Summit focused on food systems, and had a focus on country level strategies, the so called, National Pathways. It is encouraging that so many countries revisited and developed their agrifood systems strategies, taking a systems approach. And regarding content: reviewing about 120 country reports of National Pathways, we found that 62% of the strategies pay attention to science, research, technology and innovation. We find that quality of governance effectiveness is a strong driver of more attention to science in countries’ strategies. Unfortunately, level of undernutrition does not correlate with policy attention to science in the country strategies.
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,
We cannot be sure that science continues to play its strong role: In a number of countries, the general freedom of science and the respect for science-based truth is under attack. If we are not watching and fighting this, it will adversely impact agrifood systems innovations, as for instance climate related science, and public health research will suffer. Science is continuing to make its strong contributions for agrifood systems transformation when reasonably funded and when its freedom for responsible work is protected and science based truth respected.