25 July 2023

Building on the foundations of Ceres2030: Sustainable Solutions to End Hunger, the FAO, the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate and the University of Notre Dame are thrilled to announce the launch of Hesat2030: a global roadmap to end hunger sustainable, nutritiously, and equitably.  

The new project’s ambition is to influence how donors and governments invest public money in agricultural and food systems using artificial intelligence, economic modelling, strategic alliances, and advocacy. The ultimate goal is to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) so that all people have access to affordable and healthy diets in a sustainable way.  

Hesat2030 will provide the scientific evidence and tools needed to drive decision-making in food systems that better integrate nutrition, gender equality and climate change into sustainable food systems. This will enable donors, governments, and other partners to improve the quality and increase the quantity of aid to agriculture and food security. 

Working together with a coalition of global and local partners, Hesat2030 brings together the agricultural, food and climate sectors to drive forward coordinated action to achieve long-lasting, sector-wide change in food systems. 

"600 million people will be in chronic hunger by 2030. This number, released in the FAO SOFI 2023 report, uses the modeling infrastructure developed for Ceres2030. This gloomy future has to be avoided and we must do so at a reasonable cost to governments. This is one of Hesat2030 missions: provide the best available numbers to trigger and guide policy actions and investments." (David Laborde, Agrifood Economics Division Director, FAO). 

“There is significant evidence that the agrifood systems are not meeting their current goals or commitments and that climate change threatens to undermine the process that we have made. With Hesat2030, we will use new, novel approaches in artificial intelligence, backed by collaborations with the next-generation of brilliant scientists,to save valuable time in summarizing existing data that can be put to greater use for decision-making.” (Jaron Porciello, Associate Professor of the Practice, University of Notre Dame) 

“The negative effects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine on hunger and malnutrition have been a serious wake-up call for global leaders. We need to do things differently if we are to ensure access to affordable and healthy diets to all in a sustainable way. We will provide global leaders with the facts, the evidence and the numbers they need to change the current trajectory and deliver on the promises made to end hunger for all by 2030.“ (Carin Smaller, Executive director and co-founder, the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate) 

Partners and network of initiatives 

Hesat2030 partners include CABI, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD), Havos.ai, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the University of Chicago. 

A number of initiatives are currently underway under the aegis of Hesat2030. They include: 

• The Agriculture & Food Security ODA Tracker, making the case for more and better aid 

• The Juno Evidence Alliance, supporting the next generation of evidence-based science, using artificial intelligence 

• The Zero Hunger Coalition, supported by 32 countries, with direct requests from 9 countries to develop and implement evidence-based and costed roadmaps 

• The Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge, where companies of all sizes have collectively pledged over USD 500 million to support 10 high impact interventions in 47 high-priority countries 

Hesat2030 is grateful for the generous support received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), and the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). 

Hesat2030 officially launched during the UN Food System Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment side-event Achieving sustainable food systems in a time of multiple crises: a new global roadmap. 

About Hesat2030 

Hesat2030 is a coalition of organizations with the purpose of creating a global roadmap to end hunger sustainably and nutritiously. Its goal is to identify innovative solutions that focus on climate change, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, women's empowerment, and social inclusion, and integrate them into donor and international agency policies, programs, and strategic plans. Project members include: University of Notre Dame; Shamba Centre for Food & Climate; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; University of Chicago; International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); CABI; Global Donor Platform for Rural Development; Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN); and Global Center on Adaptation. For more information, please visit: www.hesat2030.org.