Food systems governance and the public sector: an overview

The public sector plays a crucial role in transforming food systems through leadership, structures, and processes like policies and budgets as well as the extent to which it enables a whole-of-society approach.Understanding public-sector governance is thus fundamental to designing and implementing food systems transformation initiatives.This working paper provides an overview of public sector governance at the country level, with a food systems lens.Public governance models vary across countries, and understanding these is vital for addressing challenges and trade-offs and leveraging opportunities in food systems.Local governments, including city governments, have close relationships to the daily lives of residents and landscapes.This makes them key players in bringing together multiple stakeholders, implementing locally relevant solutions, and strengthening capacity through sharing best practices, tools, and lessons learned via city-to-city networks.In a similar way, global food systems-related fora can provide opportunities for national, subnational, and local governments to enhance the evidence base on food systems transformation and shape wider food systems outlooks.Inclusion and equity are cornerstones of a just transformation across all the socioecological elements and relationships that are part of the food system.This encompasses fostering local agency and providing a legitimate space for diverse perspectives on knowing and being a part of food systems involving different stakeholders, including vulnerable and marginalised groups like low-income households, women, youth, and indigenous communities.Good governance principles and food systems governance guidelines can further support collaboration and effective and just transformation.Further exploration is needed into governance relationships between urban and rural governments, communities, and the intersection of food systems with other systems like climate and formal and informal economies. KEY MESSAGES• Understanding the public governance models of different countries is vital for addressing challenges and trade-offs, and leveraging opportunities in food systems.• Local and city governments and communities are key to locally led, contextual food systems transformation.• Effective engagement with a diversity of local, sub-national, national, regional, and global stakeholders, including vulnerable and marginalised communities, nurtures sustained and just food systems transformation.• City-to-city networks and regional and global food systems-related fora are resources and spaces within which governments can share evidence, views, best practices, tools, and lessons learned.across territories and country borders.Reasons for this include the increasing influence of urbanisation on urban and rural diets towards less healthy consumption choices, the rapid growth of urban communities, widening social inequalities especially within cities, climate change, shifts in land use, and public health challenges (9,14,15,16).Historically, collective societal challenges like food and nutrition insecurity have been addressed through mechanisms of 'global governance' (17).Under globalisation, food systems became increasingly interdependent and connected through flows of resources and capital or networks of stakeholders ( 17).The collective nature of these challenges led to the formation of supranational institutions such as the United Nations Committee on World Food Security and Nutrition, and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, where countries, scientists, experts, and civil society set the agenda for tackling global hunger and food and nutrition security.Global partnerships, frameworks, networks, and agreements, such as the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda, Climate and Biodiversity Conferences of the Parties (CoPs), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Urban Food Systems Coalition, World Organisation of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, and the One Planet Network further connect agendas, help shape interventions, provide inter-and trans-disciplinary evidence bases for policy, and bring stakeholders together to solve collective problems (12).Understanding governance is fundamental to understanding, designing and implementing food systems transformation initiatives.As such, this working paper provides an overview of public sector governance at the country level, with a food systems lens.Public governance encompasses political will and leadership, formulation of policy, interpretation policy into delivery, administration and approaches to participation, accountability and transparency.While this paper focuses on the public sector, the authors acknowledge that the public sector is only a part of food systems governance.Successful sustainable outcomes require inclusive and equitable engagement with, and actions of, many formal and informal leaders in the private sector and civil society, including food businesses, traditional food market committees, and community initiatives like food gardens and food banks. UNDERSTANDING HOW A COUNTRY IS GOVERNED SCAFFOLDING OF PUBLIC SECTOR GOVERNANCEKnowing the structure of how a country is governed is essential to understanding the way in which food systems governance is operationalised and optimised.Governance is effected through policy formulation and the coherent and coordinated interpretation of policy into delivery via strategy, plans, budgets, participation, rule of law, accountability, transparency, public and private partnerships, and increasingly public, philanthropic, and/or wider civil society partnerships.A country's political orientation and constitution provide the overarching frame for structures of government, governance processes, and

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