These questions were asked to a panel of experts by the Standing Committee on Foreign Trade and Development Aid at the Dutch House of Representatives on Wednesday February 5th. The discussion was initiated by amongst others, the call from NFP and 95 stakeholders to invest more in international food security. 

Agricultural biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate, posing a serious threat to global food and nutrition security. Strengthening partnerships between public genebanks, plant breeders, and seed companies is crucial to reversing this trend. SeedNL’s Guiding Principles outlines actionable ways public-private collaboration can help safeguard plant genetic resources, with tangible examples demonstrating its impact. SeedNL hopes to further dialogue on this important topic, fostering partnerships that build on these guiding principles to enhance conservation and the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. Contact them if you would like to know more, see opportunities for practical collaboration or to promote agricultural biodiversity conservation on organisational and governmental agendas.

What does transformative change really mean for food systems?
NFP invited Bine Liem, who participated in the 11th Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) plenary as part of the Dutch delegation, to reflect on the connections between IPBES and food systems from a youth perspective. With the IPBES NEXUS and Transformative Change Assessment reports now out, the urgent need for action has never been clearer.

The E-course on Food Systems opened this Monday February 24 with 800 participants selected from among a record number of 2561 applicants. They include individuals from 87 countries as well as 42 teams of joint learners from private sector companies, NGO's public sector and knowledge institutes with a strong representation from NFP network partners in Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The course features the latest information on food systems in relation to biodiversity, food systems in fragile settings and informal food systems.

The e-course runs for five weeks and is designed for professionals in food and nutrition security, focusing on food system transformation. E-course modules are self-paced and include lively online discussions and a plenary session with experts. For successful teams and network partners, follow-up training with practical study cases is offered. All six editions of the e-course have been co-organized with Wageningen University.

NWGN and NFP would like to invite you to an online briefing session on the Nutrition for Growth Summit on 4 March 2025, 13:30 – 14:30h CET. In this session, we will provide an overview of the summit and reflect on the summit expectations, commitments and financing. Whereafter, we will offer space for updates by other participants about their events and contributions to the N4G. Agenda and Registration are available here. 

➡️ More Information on the NLCGIAR Community Page

This year, 27&28 March 2025, the N4G Summit will take place in Paris, France. It will be a summit bringing together various stakeholders to discuss financial and political commitments and foster dialogue between governments, international organisations, research institutions, civil society organisations, philanthropists, private sector entities and others. Read our “What to expect” article about the N4G Summit here. 

Join us for our first Biodiversity& Food Systems community network call of the year!  In this meeting we will introduce NFP for those new to our network and updates on our 2025 activities, get your input about the partnership model for the biodiversity and food systems community, look forward to global events (e.g., G20 - 2025, UNFSS+4, COP30) and explore how we can work together to maximize impact around these events. This is also a chance for us to gain your insights for criteria to select use cases we will be delving into this year. Register here to participate.

🗓️ : Monday, March 17, 2025

🕑 : 03:30 - 05:00 PM CET

📍 : Online