Joining Forces for Global Challenges: World Peoples Assembly and FAO Discuss the Future of Food Systems

A working meeting between representatives of the World Peoples Assembly and the FAO Liaison Office for the Russian Federation took place in mid-October 2026.

The focus was on ensuring global food security, developing sustainable agrifood chains, strengthening public health, and reducing the environmental footprint.

Oleg Kobyakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office for the Russian Federation, outlined the priority areas in which the organizations need to build close cooperation:

• Ecology and combating food loss: reducing environmental damage from food spoilage and loss requires joining efforts with a wide range of partners and stakeholders;

• A healthy future for children: ensuring universal access to adequate nutrition is a critical task. Undernutrition in early childhood increases the risk of becoming overweight, obese, and diabetic later in life;

• The inextricable link between health and food security - these two tasks cannot be addressed in isolation: improving food systems must go hand in hand with caring for people’s health;

• Support for global UN initiatives: the parties agreed on substantive support for special international campaigns. 2026 is held under the auspices of three major UN programs at once: the “International Year of Women Farmers,” the “International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development,” and the “International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.” Joint work by the Assembly and FAO will help draw maximum attention to these topics and implement real projects around the world.

The practical implementation of the joint roadmap and the plan for upcoming events were discussed with the participation of Tatyana Avgusmanova, Head of the Sustainable Development Directorate and curator of the World Peoples Assembly project “Independent Dialogues on Food Security and Food Systems Development.”

The World Peoples Assembly thanks Maria Bukhaeva and Olga Starovoitova, staff of the FAO Liaison Office for the Russian Federation, for organizing and holding the meeting.

Additional information is available on the official website of the World Peoples Assembly, on its VKontakte and Telegram accounts, and at media@world-assembly.org.