New Age (Bangladesh) quoted IFPRI Director General Johan Swinnen in this article on the Annual BIDS Conference on Development (ABCD) 2024, organized by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in Dhaka.
According to Swinnen, reforming food systems is feasible, but highly complex due to the multitude of stakeholders involved. He also emphasized the necessity of inclusive collaboration to drive meaningful change.
Swinnen outlined several key aspects of food system reforms during his presentation titled “The Political Economy of Food System Transformation”, including the search for non-traditional coalitions, saying that coalitions in food system reforms were often more complex than assumed.
“It is crucial to identify the diverse roles of producers and consumers within value chains,” he said, noting bundling innovations and strategies as one of the key issues for food system transformation. He also added that the inherent challenges of food system reforms involved economic and political trade-offs, further complicated by uncertainty due to the complexity of issues. Swinnen stressed that navigating these challenges requires coordinated efforts across sectors to foster innovation and adapt to changing global dynamics.