Countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America face increasingly frequent and overlapping food system shocks: extreme weather events, agricultural commodity and fertilizer international price spikes, conflicts, trade disruptions, and fiscal and debt pressures. While emergency response is essential to saving lives and livelihoods, this event explores how countries can also become more resilient to shocks: anticipating shocks rather than only reacting to them, diversifying supply chains and building buffers at the farm and economy-wide levels.

International and regional trade remain vital for global food security, as they facilitate food moving from surplus to deficit areas when local harvests fail, dampen price spikes, and give farmers and agribusinesses access to larger input and output markets. Regional integration, including through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), can diversify sources of supply and reduce dependence on any single market. But both global and regional trade can be hindered by policy measures, such as unpredictable tariffs or export restrictions, which also put more pressure on prices. In today’s environment, many countries are thus focused on increasing domestic production and well-functioning regional and global markets.

Drawing on CGIAR evidence, the event will present concrete policy options for strengthening resilience to conflict, economic and weather shocks, from the farm level to trade and macroeconomic policy. A high-level panel bringing together policymakers, private sector leaders and international partners will then discuss how to accelerate economic development while building resilience.