Tropentag 2023: Battling the global 3Cs (climate change, COVID-19, conflict) through food systems transformation

The challenges posed by geopolitical conflicts, extreme weather events, and economic shocks are not to be underestimated. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people struggle with inadequate access to food, and tens of millions are forcibly displaced, and these numbers have been on the rise. Meanwhile, it’s crucial to recognize that malnutrition takes various forms, including micronutrient deficiencies and problems such as obesity. Alarmingly, the incidence of both of the conditions is also rising.

These are among the challenges contributing to the recent halt in the decline of world hunger, IFPRI Director General Johan Swinnen noted in his keynote speech at the Tropentag 2023 conference in Berlin on September 20. This year’s conference, organized by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), in cooperation with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, focused on the theme “Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation:
trade-offs and synergies.”