Confronting sustainable development challenges requires system transformation in Food, Land, and Water! Policy Pathways invites policymakers and sustainable development stakeholders to share their expertise on the policy solutions that can advance system transformation across the globe. CGIAR Research Initiative on National Policies and Strategies has produced a series of policy coherence reports focused on India, Colombia, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Laos.

The cascading effects of biodiversity decline on human well-being present a pressing challenge for sustainable development. Conservation efforts often prioritize safeguarding specific species, habitats, or intact ecosystems but overlook biodiversity’s fundamental role in providing Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) in human-modified landscapes.

Hunger and malnutrition are key global challenges whose understanding is instrumental to their elimination, thus realization of important sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, understanding linkages between farm production diversity (FPD) and household micronutrient intake is important in mapping micronutrient deficiencies and hidden hunger. Such understanding would inform appropriate interventions against malnutrition. Unfortunately, empirical literature is scarce to sufficiently inform such understanding.

The primary objective of this working paper is to review literature (i.e., peer-reviewed and grey) on the extent to which women’s full and effective participation in climate change policies at different scales; defined at the level at which a policy is implemented, including macro, meso and micro; improve women’s resilience to climate change and environmental hazards.

Palm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately.

Small-scale fisheries account for 90% of global fishers and 40% of the global catch. Effectively managing small-scale fisheries is, therefore, crucial to progressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Co-management and community-based fisheries management are widely considered the most appropriate forms of governance for many small-scale fisheries. We outlined relationships between small-scale fisheries co-management and attainment of the SDGs, including evidence for impacts and gaps in dominant logic.

The Amazon basin is the world’s largest rainforest and the most biologically diverse place on Earth. Despite the critical importance of this region, Amazon forests continue inexorably to be degraded and deforested for various reasons, mainly a consequence of agricultural expansion. The development of novel policy strategies that provide balanced solutions, associating economic growth and environmental protection, is still challenging, largely because the perspective of those most affected- local stakeholders- is often ignored.

This document is part of a series of short papers on “The Future of X”, produced as part of foresight-related research supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets, and edited by Keith Wiebe (IFPRI) and Steven Prager (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT). These short papers are intended to provide a focused, forward-looking perspective on key issues to support discussion on food, land, and water systems transformation. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft.

A huge increase in investment for innovation in sustainable agri-food systems (SAS) will be critical for meeting the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. Currently only a small fraction of investment addresses environmental or social goals together with productivity increase. A major challenge for both innovators and innovation investors is determining whether an investment ‘counts’ as one likely to promote both environmental and/or social sustainability.

Coherence between different policy and programming objectives, instruments, and implementation has long been an important goal of multilateral governance and development efforts. Policy coherence – as defined by the OECD – can be understood as the systematic promotion of mutually reinforcing policy actions across government departments and agencies, creating synergies towards achieving agreed objectives (Trinity Dublin College, 2017).

Social cohesion plays a key role in processes of peacebuilding and sustainable development. Fostering social cohesion might present a potential to enhance the connection of natural resource management and peacebuilding and better functioning of sustainable land use systems. This contribution explores the nexus between social cohesion, natural resource management, and peacebuilding. Research is based on experience from cocoa production in two post-conflict countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Colombia.

Taking a food systems approach is a promising strategy for improving diets. Implementing such an approach would require the
use of a comprehensive set of metrics to characterize food systems, set meaningful goals, track food system performance, and
evaluate the impacts of food system interventions. Food system metrics are also useful to structure debates and communicate to
policy makers and the general public. This paper provides an updated analytical framework of food systems and uses this to