Food is Never Waste Coalition

Background

The Food is Never Waste Coalition is a UN Food Systems Summit Coalition co-led by UN Environment Programme, The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and World Resources Institute (WRI)

The Coalition was launched at the Food Systems Pre-Summit in Rome, in 2021, to take forward the Agenda 2030 and accelerate action towards SDG target 12.3, to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030. 
 

Objectives

The Coalition aims to:

• Enhance understanding of food loss and waste reduction as an essential action item to fight global challenges and achieve developmental goals e.g. climate change, food security, biodiversity loss, etc.
• Serve as a knowledge exchange platform that can raise ambition and enhance the technical capacities of national and sub-national governments, cities, and other interested stakeholders for FLW reduction
• Build and strengthen collaboration throughout the food systems value chain, between Member States, Cities, Public and Private Organizations, and Individuals to ensure learning and sharing of best practice
• Promote and incentivize public and private investment in food loss and waste reduction
   

Functions of the Coalition

1. Capacity building and shared learning between Coalition Members

• Organize a series of capacity building workshops to facilitate knowledge and exchange among Member States, cities, and/or other targeted actors. Provide training and forum for shared learnings on implementing, scaling and funding key for FLW reduction approaches.

2. Advocacy and public engagement

• Participate in international fora to advocate for FLW reduction, such as Climate COP, World Urban Forum, Biodiversity COP, etc.
• Support the Food Waste Breakthrough to be launched at COP30
• Raise awareness on the importance of Food Loss and Waste reduction through advocacy efforts including the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste and at international fora.
• Develop communications materials, including visualizing the cost savings for families in reducing food waste at home, and key messages around food waste reduction in the Ho.Re.Ca sector.
• Develop food waste educational and advocacy materials, specifically engaging youth and students

3. Knowledge creation, dissemination and sharing

• Develop or support the development of FLW knowledge products, building on special projects, e.g. food waste reduction in cities, consumer behavior change.