Key findings & way forward:

Dominant global food paradigm - rooted in profit driven industrial food systems - needs to refocus on public health, sustainability, and social equity. Achieving an equitable and sustainable transformation of global food governance (GFG) will require a radical reform to redress an unjust governance system.

The authors highlight 4 key priority areas for reform:

1) Existing multilateral food and nutrition institutions should minimise and eliminate conflicts of interest and reduce power asymmetries. New governance bodies at national, regional, and global levels shall be established to ensure transparent, democratic, and accountable decision-making. This would require a coordinated, global and inclusive intergovernmental governance structure, committed to a human rights-based global food policy framework that prioritises public health and well-being.

2) measures are needed to address global food and financial governance challenges, rebalance power asymmetries, strengthen regional cooperation, and ensure a fairer distribution of opportunities and resources. There’s also a need to reform some aspects of the international economic order that undermine national sovereignty and perpetuate tax and debt injustices. This, in turn, constrains the capacity of developing countries to invest in sustainable food systems. One proposal is the creation of a democratic and accountable Global Financing Facility to manage the economic dimensions of food systems transformation.

3) National governments should repurpose food system subsidies and financial flows. This necessitates shifting public and private finance away from harmful industrial agriculture toward sustainable, agroecological systems that empower small-scale farmers and uphold food sovereignty. For many developing countries these actions must be paired with debt relief and sufficient development finance to protect and strengthen fiscal and policy capacity.

4) Governance needs to move beyond reliance on voluntary, industry-driven self-regulation toward robust legal mechanisms that hold all actors accountable for social and environmental harm. Global and national institutions must implement strong regulatory and policy actions, monitor systemic outputs through governance feedback loops, and guard against unaccountable multistakeholderism. Decision making should be responsive, whilst prioritising public health, environmental sustainability, and human rights.