Zambia’s Food Systems Pathways document is a strategic blueprint developed following national dialogues held before and after the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit in New York. It aligns national policies, programmes, and stakeholder actions toward achieving the Zero Hunger goal while transforming the country’s food systems and embedding nutrition as a core development outcome. The framework identifies five key pathways: (1) ensuring universal access to safe and nutritious foods; (2) promoting healthy and sustainable consumption patterns; (3) strengthening nature-positive and sustainable food production systems; (4) improving equitable livelihoods for all actors in the food system; and (5) enhancing resilience to shocks, stresses, and vulnerabilities. The 5 pathways of Zambia’s Food Systems Strategy address different but interconnected challenges across the food system. Pathway 1 focuses on improving access to safe and nutritious foods by tackling malnutrition through diversification of production, stronger value chains, and improved infrastructure, finance, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Pathway 2 shifts attention to consumption, promoting healthier and more sustainable diets through behaviour change, food safety, fortification, school feeding, and better awareness of nutrition. Pathway 3 strengthens production systems by promoting nature-positive and climate-smart agriculture, improving productivity while protecting ecosystems through sustainable practices, innovation, and better access to inputs, finance, and services. Pathway 4 addresses equity by improving livelihoods and inclusion in the food system, focusing on fair access to land, finance, and opportunities for women, youth, and marginalized groups. Pathway 5 builds resilience by preparing the food system for shocks such as climate change, disasters, pests, and diseases through early warning systems, insurance, diversification, and targeted support to vulnerable communities. The document includes several annexes that provide structured guidance for implementation. These comprise a table summarizing key strategic priorities in the short term (up to 2025) and long term (up to 2030) for each pathway, a second table linking national pathway targets to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and a third table mapping the pathways to relevant SDGs and key stakeholders. The annexes also contain a detailed implementation plan outlining how the pathways will be operationalized.
Замбия · 2023-01-01