This month’s newsletter offers a snapshot of partnerships in motion. Coming out of COP30 and a season of high-level gatherings, we see a renewed focus on the urgency of what is at stake, and how much work is already underway. Food systems change happens through the synergy of actions from high-level reflection to grounded implementation. This edition brings together that full picture from what we observed at COP30 to the formation of new communities. Read on to see how partners across our network have been shaping change over this past month.

— Communications Team @NFP

Updates and Announcements

Will the outcomes of the recent UN Climate Summit improve the realities of farmers and consumers facing the harshest impacts of climate change? Will they be able to co-create the solutions that work best in their setting? This is the challenge many of our network partners from civil society, research and private and public sector had in mind when heading to Belém. Explore key takeaways from Belém, reflections from NFP partners, and why inclusive implementation must be at the heart of climate action.

On 10 November, 240 participants enrolled in the e-course Food System Finance developed by NFP and Wageningen University & Research. This new e-course explains the concepts and practice of food systems and the relevance this has for the public and private financial sector. During the plenary webinar, part of the e-course, experts discussed how public, private, and blended finance can drive food systems transformation by aligning investment with economic, social and environmental goals. They highlighted tools like IFAD’s 3FS framework and shared real-world examples from Samunnati in India to show how finance can be structured to support smallholder farmers and sustainable food systems. The webinar recording is available in six parts covering the opening remarks, presentations, interactive session, and open discussion.

At NFP, we are passionate about the power of partnerships to make a difference in this world. However we also know that strengthening partnerships can sometimes feel complex, hard to explain, and no single actor can see it all. Thankfully it can also be  inspiring, informative, and relatable. Welcome to the Beehive is NFP’s new podcast series offering a closer look at the people, partnerships, and purpose driving transformation. In our latest episodes we sat down with Wim Goris to explore the robust ecosystem of the Food Systems E-Course, and then with Roseline Remans and Mariëlle Karssenberg to hear about Biodiversity and the experience of building a new and innovative partnership at NFP. 

From Dakar: New catalogue launched at Ferme Orange
Across West Africa, there is growing momentum to shift away from harmful crop protection methods toward safer, more sustainable solutions. But practical alternatives are not always clear or easily accessible.

Last week, Wim Goris, NFP Partnership Builder, joined the Ferme Orange network event organised by the NL embassy in Dakar. The event also marked the launch of a new catalogue, co-developed with Soil Valley and the Embassy’s agricultural team: Solutions néerlandaises pour une agriculture durable / Dutch sustainable agri inputs. It features 23 Dutch companies and institutes offering biological and organic inputs for soil health and horticulture. This is an early step in building stronger partnerships around healthy soils in Senegal and the region. We warmly welcome your feedback, insights, and ideas!

GPTPF explores cocoa, cost, and change
The Global Partnership for the True Price of Food hosted its latest member meeting on The “True Price of Cocoa”. Over 40 members of the Global Partnership on the True Price of Food gathered to explore methods for measuring and addressing the hidden costs in the cocoa sector. 

Key insights include:

Transforming African agri-food systems requires working with the “hidden middle”: African SMEs that produce, process, and move most of the continent’s food. Experiences from Dutch SMEs active in Africa show that meaningful business opportunities can be co-created in African “pre-competitive markets” through locally-grounded partnerships that align with both African development goals and Dutch policy ambitions for sustainable trade and investment.

At a NFP World Food Day 2025 side-event, foodFIRST, TRAIDE, and NFP explored what it takes to support these collaborations. To unlock this potential, policy must move beyond generic trade promotion by linking Dutch policy tools with African priorities to enable partnership models that are locally relevant and mutually beneficial.

Is traditional collateral the only way to finance agriculture in emerging markets? Read about the One Acre's NFP-WFD side event, where experts from One Acre Fund, Truvalu, and Holland Greentech debated the "missing middle" in agri-finance and concluded that blended finance and "boots on the ground" are the non-negotiable keys to unlocking scale and managing risk.

What’s the true cost of what we eat?
We’re proud to launch our three-part review series, “True Cost Assessment Methods for Quantifying the Multi-Dimensional Impacts of Food,” funded by NFP and developed with GAIN, the True Price Foundation, and ATNi. The reviews map existing approaches for assessing the external health, environmental, and socio-economic costs and benefits of foods and diets—forming the foundation for our proposed “True Cost & True Price of Food Baskets” project.

Drawing on 200+ studies, the series highlights a landscape dominated by high-income countries and significant unpriced impacts, from diet-related disease and alcohol harms to GHG emissions and labour inequities. Current TCA methods remain fragmented and limited in scope.

Get in touch to learn more about the reviews - or our envisioned wider project!

Dutch agrifood and water stakeholders met with the Dutch Ambassador to Benin strengthen existing cooperation and to spark new partnerships and unlock fresh business opportunities following September’s trade mission. Discover how this growing collaboration is shaping sustainable development—and where the next opportunities lie.

From registration to regional reach, the IN-FEAST Partnership has entered a new phase of collective action. In recent months, the IN-FEAST Partnership - consisting of the Association for Insect Farming and Its Products (AIFIP), Fair & Sustainable, New Generation Nutrition, and ICIPE - has achieved several significant milestones that reflect a growing momentum in the sector for collective action. At the heart of this progress is a shared commitment to fostering a sustainable and inclusive insect farming sector in East Africa.

Knowing that biodiversity matters for food systems is the easy part; integrating it in practice is harder. At NFP’s World Food Day 2025 in The Hague, biodiversity was a clear thread running through the programme and conversations, and we used the occasion to launch the Biodiversity and Food Systems Use Case Bundle, 10 journeys across sectors and scales that show how partners are already working on this in practice. Here are a few key highlights and takeaways from the event, and a taste of what these real-world examples can offer for your own work.

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