Shaping the future of agrifood systems: Insights from an Avanzar2030 workshop in Costa Rica

By Daniela Salas, Mali Eber Rose, and Brian McNamara

June 20, 2024

Many policies have been implemented across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to make agrifood systems more sustainable and promote food security. Identifying the most effective and innovative among these is crucial to efforts to adapt to climate change, sustainably transform food systems, and other key goals. The project Avanzar2030: Innovation for Sustainable Agrifood Systems seeks to identify such policies, technologies, and institutions that can drive positive change in LAC-and contribute to larger global efforts.

Policymakers, researchers, and library scientists convened at an Avanzar2030 workshop April 25-26 at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica to exchange insights, share experiences, and collectively explore avenues for transformative change.

The event provided a platform for author teams to review and code publications, laying the groundwork for synthesizing evidence to inform decision-making and policy formulation. This process provided experts with a valuable opportunity to systematically examine the current state of food systems research in LAC and gain insights that can readily be applied to the work of their respective institutions.