The Coalition to Repurpose Public Support to Food and Agriculture
The objective of this coalition is to support countries who have indicated a desire to repurpose their forms of public agricultural support by helping them a) identify which public support measures are exacerbating climate, environment, and development challenges, and b) redesign these measures, not only to ‘do no harm’ but to help improve food and nutrition security, strengthen soil and water quality, increase biodiversity, build resilience, and mitigate climate change. These repurposed policies – developed inclusively, with the meaningful participation of food producers – will align with countries’ international trade agreements, policies, and regulatory frameworks.
Guiding the coalition is a Policy Action Agenda, developed with support from the UK government, the World Bank, and Just Rural Transition. The Agenda identifies a range of concrete actions that both governments and non-state actors can take to help repurpose public support to agriculture.
Science based evidence to prioritize this coalition
- Food systems are responsible for fully one-third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions, and the hidden costs produced by these systems are estimated at $12 trillion
- Food system-based emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets
- A major driver of food systems and land use is the support provided to them by the public sector
- Recent analysis, modeling, and literature reviews from OECD, FAO-UNEP-UNDP, World Resources Institute, and the World Bank have quantified the immense amount of support ($720 billion) governments provide to their agriculture sectors every year that, for the most part, fails to support climate, environment, or development goals.
- A Just Rural Transition policy brief presents peer-reviewed evidence demonstrating that compensating farmers for the provision of ecosystems services (e.g., soil health) is an effective way of ensuring public support helps meet climate, environment, and development goals.
Mechanisms of implementation
Peer-to-Peer Learning Platform
Through the course of 2021, countries have been invited to participate in a series of Ministerial policy dialogues co-hosted by the COP26 Presidency and the World Bank. This is intended to form the basis of a Peer-to-Peer Learning Platform – a ‘coalition of the willing’ in which countries can share evidence and experiences related to policy repurposing. The platform is helping to build knowledge and provide countries with the confidence that repurposing support policies for agriculture can help deliver national climate, environment and food/nutrition security objectives. The platform enables participants to build relationships with peers in different countries that yield insights on the political and technical dimensions of repurposing processes.
Analytical and Technical Support
The Solution Cluster brings together many of the key international agencies, knowledge and implementation partners to help countries access analytical and technical support for ‘repurposing’ initiatives. Stakeholders from knowledge and implementation agencies, donors, financial entities and others are encouraged to indicate via the Policy Action Agenda how they can provide support. This is important because many countries do not have current data on their levels of subsidies and other forms of support, and related indicators. Many countries may need help identifying which forms of public support to food and agriculture are exacerbating challenges; performing ex ante impact analyses to demonstrate the potential effects of repurposing; determining what opportunities exist to repurpose those policies; and judging which repurposing ‘pathways’ could promote the transition with minimal trade-offs, achieving both national and international priorities in the short-term and long-term.
Multistakeholder Consultations
As a contribution to this coalition, the Just Rural Transition Secretariat has facilitated multistakeholder consultations with food producers, investors, other private sector actors across the value chain, civil society and other key stakeholders. Following 2021, multistakeholder consultations at the regional- and country- levels will form a key component of the coalition’s strategy. Organizations who wish to participate in these future dialogues are encouraged to endorse the Policy Action Agenda by contacting jrt@merid.org.
Strategic partners
Member States
- Japan
- Switzerland
Civil Society
- WWF
- Just Rural Transition
- World Bank
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office
- UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
- OECD
- IMF
- World Farmers’ Organization
- Overseas Development Institute
- UN SDSN
- UN Foundation
Monitoring and Evaluation
Just Rural Transition, the World Bank, and the UK FCDO will promote and assist in country-led monitoring and evaluation of progress against the following SDG-linked indicators :
- Percent of public support to agriculture that supports climate, environment, and/or development goals (SDG 2.1-2.5, 2.a-2.c; 13.1, 13.2, 13.a, 13.b; 15.1-15.19, 15.a-15.c; 17.14, 17.15; inter alia)
- Number of countries engaged in North-North, South-South, and North-South dialogues through Peer-to-Peer Platform, and length of engagement (SDG 17.6)
- Increased in Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues at country-level aimed at advancing the repurposing of public agricultural support via the Policy Action Agenda (SDG 17.16)
Express your interest in joining this coalition
Focal point contacts
- Christian Man
cman@justruraltransition.org - Rachel Waterhouse
rachel.waterhouse@fcdo.gov.uk - Shenggen Fan
S.FAN@cgiar.org - Marco Sanchez Cantillo
Marco.SanchezCantillo@fao.org - Joy Kim
joy.kim@un.org