Knowledge-sharing initiative to reduce food loss

A new initiative to enhance global cooperation on measuring and reducing food loss and waste was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the CGIAR research programme on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) in December 2015. The G20 agriculture ministers requested FAO and IFPRI to launch this initiative in Istanbul, Turkey, this past May.

The initiative, called Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste, is an information-sharing and coordination network involving diverse stakeholders, such as international organisations, development banks, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector.

Share best practices to tackle the challenges of food loss and waste

Platform partners will work together to enhance the measurement of food loss and waste, exchange knowledge and information, and share best practices to tackle the global challenges of food loss and waste.

Currently, one-third of global food production – enough food to feed two billion people for a year – is lost or wasted annually. The G20 agriculture ministers termed the significant food loss and waste throughout food value chains as “a global problem of enormous economic, environmental and societal significance”.

“South-South” knowledge transfers are important

The Platform will:

• Lead efforts to improve the measurement of food loss and waste
• Build capacity to reduce food loss and waste in G20 countries as well as in lower-income nations. This capacity-building effort includes “South-South” knowledge transfers
• Provide evidence-based advocacy on the scope, causes and costs of food loss and waste
• Monitor global developments on food loss and waste
• Provide multi-agency advisory and technical assistance for work on food loss and waste at the request of governments

The new platform builds on existing mechanisms

The Platform builds on and complements existing mechanisms, such as the Global Community of Practice on Food Loss Reduction, run jointly out of Rome by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) as well as the World Resources Institute’s Food Loss and Waste Protocol.

It also expands on the work done by the SAVE FOOD Network, as well as the CGIAR research programme PIM - Policies, Institutions and Markets (led by the IFPRI), an initiative on food loss and waste under a larger portfolio of value chain studies. IFPRI also measures food loss and waste at all stages – from production and post-production to processing, distribution and consumption – in order to identify the origin and cost of food loss and waste at the local, regional and global levels.

More information: FAO

(FAO/ile)