The first national dialogue meeting on the UN Food Systems Summit took place

The 2021 Summit will bring together diverse range of stakeholders - before, during and after the Summit – to identify ways to make food systems stronger and more equitable and to bring tangible and positive changes to the world’s food systems (and ultimately driving progress in all of the SDGs)

The first national dialogue meeting in Azerbaijan brought together various stakeholders to discuss the country's food systems, food security and agricultural development prospects. "By strengthening food systems, we can achieve not only food security but also sustainable food supply systems, healthy food and a sustainable development agenda," said Melek Cakmak, the Represenatative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Azerbaijan.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ilhama Gadimova said: “Today, the government works closely with international organizations, especially the FAO, to ensure food security and sustainable agriculture for sustainable development goals. It is useful and effective, ”she said.

The event continued with questions from the participants and general discussions.

Another important aspect of the national dialogue was to apply different approaches to food systems, to ensure the participation of parties from different areas in the dialogue, to formulate strategies that identify development prospects in line with today's challenges and to identify some specific steps for multilateral and sustainable food systems.

Throughout the Food Systems Summit Dialogues, a diverse range of stakeholders are invited to prepare the 2021 Summit by coming together and sharing their experiences of food systems. An important focus of the national dialogue is to progress understanding of the food systems approach, get buy-in, change mindset, facilitate multi-stakeholder and multi-discipline dialogues, and identify some concrete steps to be taken towards more sustainable food systems.