The Asia and the Pacific Food Security Forum 2024 will be held from 8-12 April 2024 in Manila, Philippines to discuss actions to ease a worsening food crisis in the region, and to improve long-term food security by strengthening food systems against the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss among stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific.

The forum will serve as a milestone event to take stock of the interim performance of Asian Development Bank’s commitment to provide at least $14 billion of own resources to support food security over 2022-2025, and to outline ADB’s forward program on food security in partnerships with a diversity of stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific.

The Asia and the Pacific Food Security Forum 2024 presents an opportunity for partners in both the public and private sectors to showcase their thought leadership and initiatives in building more sustainable and resilient food systems in the region for the future of climate, food and nature. The forum also provides opportunities for engaging with policymakers, government officials, development practitioners, food system and climate change experts, and ADB staff to build strong partnerships in policies, project implementation and research, to accelerate food systems transformation in Asia and the Pacific.

Objectives

The Asia and the Pacific Food Security Forum 2024 seeks to achieve

Food security policy perspectives and food systems priorities – building a shared understanding among policy makers of long-term challenges and opportunities of food systems transformation in Asia and the Pacific, and of short-term cooperative approach to responding to rising food price.
ADB’s food security operational performance – assessing the progress and performance of the ADB’s $14 billion commitment to food security in 2022-25.
Forward support programs confirmed with policy makers – priorities focused on agri-food systems transformation and with operational approaches reflecting the ADB’s four key shifts under new operating model (climate, private sector, solution and One ADB).
Partnerships and knowledge sharing with development partners for food security strengthened – follow up the IFI Action Plan for Food Security and the first IFI Global Forum for Food Systems Transformation.

Structure and format

The Asia and the Pacific Food Security Forum 2024 will be a hybrid event and offer a mix of two days of plenary sessions and two additional days of deep dive sessions. The plenary sessions consist of high-level opening and closing, two key thematic sessions and programming consultations that will build shared understanding of long-term challenges and direction of required actions and partnerships by ADB, DMC governments and key stakeholders. The deep dive sessions will have focused discussion on the best practice and practical application to demonstrate how to influence policy, turn policy into action and translate knowledge into practical solutions for food systems transformation in Asia and the Pacific.

Target participants

ADB’s developing member countries’ government representatives, ADB executing and implementing agencies involved in agriculture, food, nature and rural development
Private sector organizations and civil society organizations on sustainable and resilient food systems transformation
Development partners, including multilateral development banks, multilateral and bilateral donors and UN agencies
Academia, think-tanks, and centers of excellence
ADB staff and consultants working across all operational sectors on food security

Forum secretariat

Forum website: adb.org/news/events/asia-pacific-food-securityforum-2024
Secretariat contact address: foodsecurity@adb.org
[Agenda] Shingo Kimura, Principal Natural Resources and Agriculture Economist, SG-AFNR, shkimura@adb.org
[Logistics] Mary Jane Romero, Consultant, SG-AFNR, mjromero.consultant@adb.org

Costs

Participation to the forum is free. However, participants who are interested in joining as onsite participants will have to pay for their own travel, accommodation, and other arrangements to attend the event in Manila, Philippines.

Draft agenda

Day 1: 9 April 2024 (Tuesday)
9:00-10:30 Opening Session: Leader’s Forum	Leader’s forum convenes the representatives of DMC senior policymakers and international development organizations to dialogue on short term and long-term issues and priorities for food security agenda in Asia and Pacific. The session will build a shared understanding of why it is necessary to make a fundamental shift in food security policymaking and investment priorities towards a sustainable and resilient agri-food systems perspective. ADB President Masa is expected to deliver a keynote address.
11:00-12:30 Session 1: Future of Food and Agriculture in Asia and the Pacific	The session will present a regional foresight study on future scenarios of food systems in Asia and the Pacific by 2050 to bring out policy and financing implications. The panel of policy makers and experts will highlight sector and thematic priorities that should be incorporated in regional and national level food security planning.
Networking lunch
14:00-15:30 Session 2: Maximize Climate-Food-Nature Nexus Gain	Food security agenda is inherently related to climate change, natural resources and ecosystems. The keynote presentation will illustrate case studies to highlight policy lessons of failing to maximize the nexus gains, followed by a panel discussion on ways and means to maximize climate-food-nature nexus gains.
16:00-17:30 Session 3: Public and Private Partnerships in Food Systems Transformation	Along the food system are farmers, input suppliers, food processors, distributors, wholesalers and retailers and many other players including financial institutions are also involved in the system. This session will focus on operational priorities to kindle and expand the opportunity to foster different forms of public-private partnerships in financing and managing food systems.
Forum reception 18:00-20:00

Day 2: 10 April 2024 (Wednesday)
9:00-10:30 Session 4: Pathway to ADB’s Ambition on Building Food Security in Asia and the Pacific	This session discusses the achievement and lessons learned from the ADB’s operation in AFNR sector including Strategy 2030 OP5 and $14 billion commitment to food security in September 2022 and discuss the operational direction to achieve ADB Strategy 2030 and beyond. This session will reflect on the outcomes of leader’s forum in the opening session.
11:00-15:30 Session 5: Building Programmatic Interventions: Theme and Country Breakouts	The session will include two breakout sessions and working lunch facilitating the thematic and country level discussion on developing a matrix of programmatic interventions, Breakout session will be attended by ADB management and key government officials involved in project pipeline development as well as private sector and development partners.
16:00-17:30 Session 6: Closing Session: Summary of key outcomes and actions forward	This closing session will present a bank-wide forward program and will highlight key programmatic thrusts (e.g. agricultural value chain program, water resources management program, rural climate adaptation and disaster resilience program, rural infrastructure financing program). ADB Vice-President for Sectors and Themes, Fatima Yasmin is expected to give a closing remark highlighting key outcomes of the Forum deliberation.

Day 3 and 4: 11-12 April 2024 (Thursday and Friday)
9:00-17:30 Deep dive sessions	A series of focused workshops will be organized as parallel sessions on the best practice and practical application to demonstrate how to influence policy, turn policy into action and translate knowledge into practical solutions for food systems transformation in Asia and the Pacific. The sessions include partner specific discussion, cross-regional knowledge sharing, showcase of technical solution, civil society dialogues and so on. In addition, pre-conference workshops may be organized on 8 April 2024.

Monday-Friday, April 8th-12th, 2024
9:00 AM to 8:00 PM

Asian Development Bank
6 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center
Wack-Wack Greenhills East, Mandaluyong 1550