Moving Forward Together: A Successful World Food Day 2026

The day opened with a plenary panel focusing on the big picture when it comes to the reality of today’s food systems. Panellists Pascalle Grotenhuis, Director General for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Heleen Groot, Deputy Director General for Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, and Ivo Demmers, Executive Director of the Netherlands Food Partnership, looked at what was most needed to get the world’s food systems to where they need to be. Questions like: Innovation or inequality? More money or better use of existing policy? Dutch economic interests or the priorities of partner countries?

“If you don’t put the needs of the partner countries first, you will get ideas or solutions or partnerships that are built here and then you’re going to export it,” said Pascalle Grotenhuis. Ivo Demmers pointed to what makes equal partnership work: “it’s about co-decision making and co-creating.” When eventually asked what the sector should stop, start and continue, the answers converged: let go of short-term thinking, and connect the agendas that still run in separate silos.

From there, more panels took the stage as practical examples of the power of partnerships. WWF-Netherlands and Habiba Community in Egypt showed how putting biodiversity at the heart of food production can also be a way to build a livelihood, followed by a panel telling the story of the NFP-supported Agri-Energy Coalition, which brings together partners from agriculture, renewable energy, nutrition and water. What started with six organisations now consists of almost 40.

“Farmers don’t experience climate change or lack of access to finance … separately, but they experience them as interconnected systems,” said Rediet Abiy Kassaye, Programme Manager at the IKEA Foundation.

The rest of the day was dedicated to networking and knowledge sharing for all participants, through 25 side sessions, 4 interactive impact zones featuring engaging information booths, an inspiring keynote by Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, and a lively Pitch Your Partnership competition, won by Yasmine Azafzaf and Nhat My Vu of Ironbloom. The day was capped off with music and of course the invitation to reconvene for NFP World Food Day 2027.

While the atmosphere throughout the day could sometimes be characterised as festive, one need only to listen in during the plenary, or at any side session, or any of the hundreds of conversations that took place in the networking zones to be reminded of the urgency felt by food systems professionals to work together to tackle the unmistakable challenges of today while also continuing to work for a better food future for all.