Expert Speak Health Express
Published on Oct 15, 2025
As FAO marks 80 years, World Food Day 2025 highlights the urgent need for inclusive, sustainable partnerships to end hunger and strengthen food security.
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On 16 October 2025, as the world observes World Food Day, organised by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the need to eliminate hunger and advance sustainable food systems becomes ever more urgent, especially as FAO marks 80 years of commitment to this mission. The theme for this year, "Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future," highlights the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which fosters evidence-driven, country-led partnerships aimed at transforming agri-food systems and strengthening food security. Amid climate crises, conflicts, and economic instability, the theme highlights the urgent need for collective action in bringing together governments, farmers, businesses, and communities to build resilient, nutritious, and sustainable food systems.
Although the world produces enough food to nourish 8.2 billion people, 673 million individuals dealt with hunger at some point during 2024. Progress, however, remains uneven; Africa and Western Asia continue to face significant setbacks due to conflicts and extreme weather conditions. According to the World Food Programme, regions such as Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti are home to 1.9 million people facing catastrophic hunger. Worldwide, 733 million people suffer from undernourishment, while 2.8 billion are unable to afford a healthy diet due to rising prices and the increasing cost of living.
The theme for this year, "Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future," highlights the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which fosters evidence-driven, country-led partnerships aimed at transforming agri-food systems and strengthening food security.
Agrifood systems, which provide livelihoods for 1 billion people, contribute a third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and are under increasing pressure from climate change, economic instability, and resource constraints. Climate change has already impacted crop yields in parts of South Asia, contributing to declines in productivity, shifts in planting and harvest dates, and increased vulnerability to pests and extreme weather, according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments. The 2022 Ukraine crisis further exacerbated the situation, driving a 14 percent surge in food prices and pushing an additional 71 million people into poverty.
Sustainable practices offer a promising path toward transforming food systems. Regenerative agriculture, for instance, enhances soil health and biodiversity while improving yields and reducing emissions. However, building sustainable food systems depends on effective governance and collaboration across multiple stakeholders. A 2024 review of 34 governance models emphasised that participatory and hybrid approaches combining public-private partnerships with active community engagement tend to deliver more inclusive and durable outcomes than siloed strategies. Such “polycentric” governance arrangements strengthen adaptive resilience, enabling food systems to withstand shocks such as pandemics or floods more effectively.
A bibliometric analysis also reveals growing academic attention to sustainability and collaboration in food supply chains. A recent review of over 500 studies on sustainable food supply chains reported a marked post-2020 rise in research on collaboration, digital traceability, and circular economy strategies. Innovations such as blockchain technology are resulting in improved transparency and traceability, curbing food losses and waste. Additionally, circular models are increasingly repurposing agricultural by-products into animal feed or bioenergy. Yet, much of this research remains concentrated in high-income regions, although the Global South continues to bear nearly 80 percent of the global hunger burden.
“Polycentric” governance arrangements strengthen adaptive resilience, enabling food systems to withstand shocks such as pandemics or floods more effectively.
Recent interdisciplinary studies underscore the importance of systems-thinking approaches in fostering sustainable and equitable food systems. A 2025 study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems advocates for using systems-thinking visualisations to map interconnections within food systems, identifying leverage points such as agroecological transitions that can enhance biodiversity and nutrition. Additionally, a meta-analysis, examining over 120 frameworks, found that collaborative indicators, such as partnership density, correlate with a 25 percent increase in sustainability scores. This highlights the significance of collaboration in achieving sustainable food systems. Furthermore, another study emphasises the role of co-creation in value-sharing partnerships, which have been shown to increase incomes through fair-trade premiums.
Together, these insights underscore that sustainable food systems require both scientific rigour and inclusive partnerships. This is a central principle of the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative (HIH). A flagship global programme designed to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems in ways that are inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable. The core aims are to eradicate poverty (Sustainable Development Goal 1), end hunger and malnutrition (SDG 2), reduce inequalities (SDG 10), and strengthen resilience to climate change. Launched in 2019, the HIH Initiative supports 80 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Its strength lies in the use of advanced geospatial analysis, socioeconomic data, and investment modelling to identify regions where agricultural interventions can have the highest impact on poverty and hunger reduction. Through its Investment Forums, the initiative mobilises public and private financing for food system transformation by promoting innovation in value chains, climate adaptation, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Across continents, HIH projects have helped smallholders diversify crops, enhance resilience to climate shocks, and integrate into fairer markets. In countries such as Peru, Ethiopia, and the Pacific Islands, HIH has enabled new investments that link small-scale producers, many being women and youth, to sustainable market opportunities while safeguarding biodiversity and reducing post-harvest losses.
Global evidence, literature, and experiences unite in a single message-collaborative efforts can halve hunger by 2030, advancing the vision of SDG 2.
The evidence and case studies underscore the essence of this year’s theme of hand-in-hand collaboration as key to building better foods and a better future for all. World Food Day 2025 serves as a clarion call for policymakers investing in inclusive initiatives to help consumers choose sustainable produce. Global evidence, literature, and experiences unite in a single message-collaborative efforts can halve hunger by 2030, advancing the vision of SDG.
https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/world-food-day-2025-building-sustainable-food-systems-for-all
