Food Systems Key to Ending Poverty and Building Inclusion

Crops growing at farmers’ cooperative, Baidoa, Southwest State, Somalia.

Food has always been political. It determines whether families thrive or fall into poverty, whether young people see a future of opportunity or despair, and whether communities feel included or pushed aside. Food is also a basic human right – one recognized in international law but too often unrealized in practice. Guaranteeing that right requires viewing food not as emergency relief, but as the cornerstone of sustainable social development.

Despite this, food systems rarely feature in discussions of social policy, even though they underpin the same goals world leaders will take up at the World Social Summit in Doha this November: eradicating poverty, securing decent work, and advancing inclusion.

Food as social infrastructure

Food is often treated as a humanitarian issue, a matter for relief during drought or war. But in reality, it is the ultimate social policy.

Food systems sustain half the world’s population – around 3.8 billion people – through farming, processing, transport, and retail, most of it informal and rural. They determine how families spend their income, who can afford a healthy diet, who learns and thrives in school, and who is left behind. Food systems mirror our societies – where women bear the greatest burden of unpaid work, where child labour denies children education, and where Indigenous and marginalised communities are excluded.

Seen through this lens, food is social infrastructure: the invisible system that underpins poverty reduction, livelihoods, and inclusion. When it functions, societies grow more equal and resilient. When it falters, inequality and exclusion deepen.

Pathways out of poverty

Across low-income countries, agriculture and food processing remain the single largest sources of livelihood. National food system transformations are showing that targeted investments here can have outsized effects on poverty reduction.

In Rwanda, investments in farmer cooperatives and value chains have enabled smallholders to capture more value from their crops, lifting entire communities. In Brazil, school feeding programmes that source from family farmers have created stable markets for the rural poor while improving child nutrition.

In Somalia, the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, working with the Resident Coordinator’s Office and national partners, is strengthening pastoralist value chains and improving market access. By connecting local producers with regional buyers and embedding resilience into social protection systems, Somalia is charting a path from chronic vulnerability toward sustainable livelihoods.

This approach combines food systems transformation with climate-smart social protection – linking producers and markets with safety nets that improve nutrition, boost inclusion, and attract investment. It is a model built on social and economic partnerships among governments, civil society, and the UN, and designed for lasting impact.

These examples highlight a simple truth: inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food systems can be among the most powerful anti-poverty tools available.

Work that is productive – and dignified

Food systems already employ one in three workers worldwide. Yet too many of these jobs are precarious, low-paid, and unsafe. The transformation now underway is starting to change that.

Digital and market innovations are linking small producers directly to buyers, bypassing exploitative middlemen. Climate-resilient practices are reducing the boom-and-bust cycles that devastate rural incomes.

In Somalia, where livelihoods are often informal and climate shocks frequent, strengthening food systems can expand opportunity and stability. By linking pastoralist value chains to markets and building skills for youth in food production and trade, food systems can turn subsistence into sustainable, resilient futures.

This shift matters: food systems can and must become a primary engine of decent, dignified employment in the global economy – particularly for women and youth.

Food as inclusion

Food is also about identity and belonging. Policies that make nutritious diets affordable, protect Indigenous knowledge, and integrate marginalised producers into value chains are acts of social inclusion.

In many countries, universal school meal programmes have emerged as one of the most powerful equalizers. They reduce child hunger, keep girls in school, and support local farmers. A single meal can nourish, educate, and empower all at once.

Another powerful tool for inclusion, resilience, and sustainability is the network of social safety nets that help smallholder producers shift towards more nutrition-sensitive and climate-smart production. With UN support through the Food Systems Window of the Joint SDG Fund, Somalia is linking early warning systems to a unified social registry and pairing cash transfers with livelihood graduation pathways involving microinsurance. This effectively transforms producers from beneficiaries into agents of change.

To be impactful, food system interventions must be guided by strong political vision and inclusive governance – bringing women, youth, and marginalised groups into decision-making. When communities most affected by policies help shape them, the results are more effective and enduring.

In Somalia, the Council on Food, Climate Change, and Nutrition is taking shape under the Office of the Prime Minister, bringing together 11 ministries to oversee the Somali National Pathway.

The case for Doha

Why does this matter for the World Social Summit? Because food systems bridge its three pillars: eradicating poverty, creating decent work, and advancing inclusion. Yet food often remains on the margins of social policy. The Doha Summit is the moment to change this.

Leaders should recognise food systems as core social infrastructure – as important as schools, hospitals, and roads. This means embedding food in national social policies, scaling financing for inclusive programmes, and protecting food from cycles of neglect that follow each crisis.

A new way of thinking

What if we reimagined food’s role in social policy? Instead of responding to food crises as humanitarian emergencies, we could invest in food systems as the foundation of long-term social development.

Progress should be measured not only by GDP or employment rates, but by whether every child eats a healthy meal each day, whether rural youth see farming as a path to prosperity, and whether no mother must choose between buying medicine or bread.

That is the lens the World Social Summit needs. Because poverty, unemployment, and exclusion are experienced daily through empty plates, insecure jobs, and the quiet despair of being shut out of opportunity.

The way forward

Food systems are already delivering – through farmers’ cooperatives, women- and youth-led businesses, and national initiatives linking food transformation with social protection and employment. But they remain under-recognised in the social development agenda.

Doha offers the chance to correct that. If leaders are serious about eradicating poverty, creating decent work, and advancing inclusion, they should start with food. It connects households to hope, work to dignity, and communities to resilience.

George Conway, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, and Deputy Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General, Somalia

Stefanos Fotiou, Director, Office of Sustainable Development Goals at the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Director of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub