Hosting and Management

The UN Food Systems Coordination Hub is hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on behalf of the UN system, supported by the leadership of the FAO Office of Sustainable Development Goals who has a direct report line to the Office of the FAO Director-General. We are resourced by the following UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes through the provision of staff and financial resources: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Development Coordination Office (UN DCO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Organization

The Hub consists of a nimble team, largely comprised of secondments from UN system entities, that understands the broader landscape across the entire food system, makes connections and ensures a systems approach, and showcases success and lessons learned. The Hub performs essential coordination functions to bring together and link food systems knowledge and expertise from diverse constituencies, to support national progress on the SDGs in response to country priorities. This includes inter alia:

  • continued support to food systems national dialogues and national pathways through the coordination of technical and policy support requested by countries as they formulate and implement national pathways for food systems transformation;
  • staying connected with the broader ecosystem of actors for sustainable food systems, including Coalitions and other initiatives as well as the science ecosystem, and promote the better integration of these efforts with country demand; and,
  • the elevation of priority topics in the food systems transformation agenda for strategic thought leadership of UN Agencies and leading actors in the ecosystem of support.

Oversight Steering Group

The strategic work, decision-making, and engagement of the Hub is steered by an Oversight Steering Group comprising the Principals of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Development Coordination Office (UN DCO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Task Force Leads, with participation from the UN Deputy Secretary-General (DSG). 

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
Amina J. Mohammed

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization
QU Dongyu

Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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President of the International Fund of Agricultural Development
Alvaro Lario

President of the International Fund of Agricultural Development

Assistant Secretary-General for Development Coordination
Oscar Fernandez-Taranco

Assistant Secretary-General for Development Coordination

Achim  Steiner
Achim Steiner

Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme

Cindy McCain

Executive Director of the World Food Programme

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Director-General of the World Health Organization

The Team

Stefanos Fotiou
Stefanos Fotiou

Director

Nadine Gbossa
Nadine Gbossa

Chief of Means of Implementation

Cinar Yavuz

Programme Officer

Francesca Nardiello
Francesca Nardiello

Office Assistant

Svante Helms

National Pathway Manager

Nicole de Paula

Technical Officer (Science for Food Systems)

Thembani Malapela
Thembani Malapela

Knowledge Management Officer

Khaled Eltaweel

Senior Programme Officer

Juana Giraldo

UN Food Systems Specialist

Martin Bwalya
Martin Bwalya

Senior Food Systems Regional Consultant (Africa)

Sofia Mauceri

UN Food Systems Coordination Specialist

Kennedy Baruta

Communications and Advocacy Expert

Meriem Achouri
Meriem Achouri

UN Food Systems Programme Specialist

GIOVANNI PILATO
Giovanni Pilato

Junior Professional Officer 

Michelle Seck

UN Food Systems Specialist

Ludovica Nesbitt
Ludovica Nesbitt

Food Systems Science Specialist

Paola Conti
Paola Conti

Office Assistant

ROMAIN HOULMANN
Romain Houlmann

Associate Professional Officer

Nozheen
Nozheen Murad

UN Food Systems Specialist

SAC

Science

To realize more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems to accelerate progress towards the SDGs, a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) to the Hub has been created. The SAC serves as an independent and diverse group of top scientists from around the world to provide robust, credible, timely, impartial and legitimate advice to the Hub and intrinsically to the countries through the Hub by bringing to bear the foremost science and evidence (free from perceived or real conflict of interest).

    Meet the SAC

    Stakeholders

    One of the responsibilities of the Hub is to engage widely with stakeholders in the food systems landscape across all the follow-up workstreams and to establish a Stakeholder Engagement and Networking Advisory (SENA) Group to engage with and advise the Hub over time, with self-nominated focal points of priority communities to ensure a robust follow-up to the Summit for the success of the 2030 Agenda through food systems transformations. The SENA Group helps the National Pathways and other national, regional, and global platforms (e.g., dialogues, coalitions, initiatives, etc.) to be informed by, and account for, the perspectives and views of multiple stakeholders to enhance effectiveness, transparency, and inclusiveness. The initial communities to comprise the SENA Group are the following: Youth, Indigenous Peoples, Producers, Women and the Private Sector, which are explicitly mentioned on the UN Secretary-General’s closing statement of the Food Systems Summit. 

    Meet the SENA Group
    Stakeholders
    Ecosystem of Support

    Ecosystem of Support

    To deliver on our key functions effectively and efficiently, the Hub will work in concert with and via existing mechanisms and processes – particularly UN Country Teams and the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) system – and will act as an enabler for the Ecosystem of Support at all levels. The Ecosystem of Support refers to both entities that have emerged from the Food Systems Summit as well as additional ones, including the coalitions, action areas, stakeholders, and other relevant entities. 

    Focus on

    Country Needs Survey Analysis

    This report presents the results of the Country Needs Survey conducted by the Hub in February 2022 to allow national governments to express their priority needs and expectations for support. Inputs from this survey were used to inform our Biennial Work Plan.