Advancing a demand-driven research portfolio to improve water, land, and food systems in the Global South: CGIAR's Systems Transformation Science Group

​To reduce poverty, social inequalities, environmental degradation, climate-related risks, and unhealthy diets, it is crucial to target key leverage points to transform food, land and water systems, which include: a) food environments for healthy diets, b) institutional innovations for sustainable land and water management,  c) climate change mitigation and adaptation capacity of vulnerable communities and countries, d) public policy and advisory services priorities, and e) transformative engagement of gender and youth. Transdisciplinary research under the CGIAR Systems Transformation Action Area targets each of these entry points to co-create with partners science-based solutions relevant to drive food systems transformation in the Global South. These solutions incorporate different types of innovations,
including digital tools, and gender-sensitive approaches.

After 18 months of implementation of this holistic approach to systems transformation, CGIAR and partners will share how work in these key areas is operationalized in different regions, the pathways
to impact, and emerging scientific contributions.

This parallel thematic session at Tropentag 2023 will feature presentations by scientists from Research Initiatives in CGIAR’s Systems Transformation Action Area:

• The role of groundwater as an accelerator of agricultural transformation: Insights from the CGIAR Research Initiative on NEXUS Gains
• Leveraging agroecological transitions: Experiences from the CGIAR Research Initiative on Agroecology
• Applying a social equity approach to transformative adaptation: Minimising trade-offs between environmental and socio-economic outcomes, from CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Climate Resilience
• Navigating climate mitigation in global food systems: Insights from CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems
• Responsible digital innovation in agri-food systems: ethical and equitable transformation for sustainable agriculture, from CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Digital Innovation
• CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets: An overview and an example of preliminary results from Ethiopia
• The Stability-and-Peace Accelerator: Scaling food, land, and water systems innovations in fragile and conflict-affected settings, from CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration
• The retail food environment as driver of consumer choices and source of decent livelihoods, from CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Sustainable Healthy Diets (SHiFT)

Learn more about other CGIAR engagements at Tropentag 2023.