Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer Presents Building Resilient Food Systems Report at CFS 53

Exploring Equitably Transformative Resilience (ETR) to Reimagine Global Food Systems

The 53rd Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS 53) took place in a hybrid format at the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, from 20 to 24 October 2025. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was established in 1974 and reformed in 2009, with the vision to be the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform of the UN system for promoting food security and nutrition for all. Using a multi-stakeholder and inclusive approach, CFS Members and stakeholders developed policy recommendations and provided guidance on a wide range of topics relevant to food security and nutrition, aiming towards the universal realization of the right to food.

On day 3, Wednesday October 22, Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer presented the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) Report: Building Resilient Food Systems, and shared how food systems can be reshaped to be just, inclusive, and grounded in human rights through equitably transformative resilience (ETR). Successful and long-term food systems that incorporate ETR must “realize human rights, operate in all parts of the food system, bring together social, economic, and environmental synergies, and create diversification and redundancy”. Dr. Blay-Palmer then outlined significant points from the report, including the four key themes as pathways and recommendations to ETR:  

• Governance and policy;  
• Emergency response, contingency planning and foresight;  
• Foster diversity in production, markets and diets; and  
• Knowledge systems for ETR.  

Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer concluded by reminding stakeholders that action is urgently needed to embed ETR principles within global food systems: 

“Action is needed now to bring about ETR in food systems…this report goes beyond ‘bouncing back’ and calls for food system shifts that strengthen agency, enable capacities, and build on values and socioecological interdependencies to allow for bouncing forward on the path to equitably transformative resilience.” 

Watch the Full Presentation 

View the webcast from the morning session of day 3 here. Listen to interventions from stakeholders and policymakers at CFS 53 on enhancing the resilience of food systems. Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer’s full presentation begins at 2:11:00 for Dr. Blay-Palmer’s presentation.