This Webinar was part of a two-week campaign to commemorate World Food Day and announce the award of the Food Systems Research Network for Africa (FSNet-Africa). FSNet-Africa is a research excellence project funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) through the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) – United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) partnership. The FSNet-Africa World Food Day campaign was a collaborative virtual event organised by the three FSNet-Africa partners: the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of Leeds (UoL) with support from the UoL Global Food and Environment Institute (GFEI), and FANRPAN. This joint virtual campaign commemorated World Food Day on 16 October 2020. World Food Day is celebrated in honour of the establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). The general focus of the celebrations is on food security, nutrition, and agricultural transformation. In view of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), celebrations in previous years have emphasised accelerating sustainable progress towards SDG 2 – Zero Hunger. Our campaign focused on African Action for Zero Hunger. We highlighted important policy choices that need to be made to secure sustainable food systems for Africa in the future. The campaign culminated in a World Food Day Webinar on 16 October. The Webinar included a welcome note from Prof Ernest Aryeetey, Secretary-General of ARUA, a Keynote address by Prof Tim Benton on Policy priorities for African Food Systems emerging from the Glopan Foresight 2.0 Report and a moderated discussion between the Vice-Chancellors of the University of Pretoria and the University of Leeds, Tawana Kupe and Simone Buitendijk.
