Outcomes from the Technical Workshop “Aligning Food Systems in NAPs and NDCs”

Background

Agrifood systems are central to both the economy and livelihoods in Lao PDR, Pakistan and Viet Nam, providing employment to large rural populations and contributing significantly to food security and economic development. However, these systems are increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts, including extreme weather events, rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, floods, droughts, and saline intrusion. Against the backdrop of intensifying climate change and its destabilizing effects on agricultural productivity across Asia and the Pacific, the integration of resilient food systems into national climate strategies has become imperative.

Recognizing that long-term food security is inextricably linked to effective climate action, IGES and Crop Trust, with support from the UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centres in Asia-Pacific and MENA & South Asia, convened a technical workshop on cross linkages among food systems actors and aligning food systems in NAPs and NDCs from 25-26 November 2025. This brought together stakeholders from Lao PDR, Pakistan, and Viet Nam to foster multi-stakeholder collaboration to support agriculture-related targets in national climate frameworks and to define priority areas for policy alignment. The workshop examined how agrifood systems can be better integrated into NAPs and NDCs, with particular emphasis on strengthening holistic food systems planning and cross-sectoral coordination, enhancing the role of seed systems and genebanks in climate resilience, identifying finance and technology enablers and developing transformation pathways toward 2035.

Objectives

This webinar aimed to:

• • Present key findings and lessons learned from the technical workshop.
• • Showcase Crop Trust’s tools and participatory methodologies used to map stakeholder interlinkages in seed systems.
• • Provide peer learnings from Lao PDR, Pakistan and Viet Nam on integrating food systems into NAPs and NDCs.
• • Identify practical next steps for strengthening alignment of agrifood systems with climate policy frameworks.
• • Ensure continued collaboration through a regional community of practice.

Summary

This workshop identified key stakeholders across agrifood systems and fostered collaboration among them to support agriculture-related targets. Participants mapped relevant actors (e.g., gene banks, farmers, policymakers) and analyzed their dependencies and contributions to the system. The workshop also sought to ensure that agrifood systems are effectively integrated into national climate frameworks, with a particular focus on NAPs and NDCs. It was designed to produce concrete planning outputs, with participants identifying policy gaps needed to improve stakeholder involvement in food systems transformation. It also defined priority areas and formulated specific policy recommendations to inform national policy and planning processes. The workshop served as a platform for capacity building, and one of the key outcomes of the workshop was the commitment to organize a webinar to present the findings to a broader national and regional audience and establish a sustained community of practice. This 60-minute learning session responds directly to that commitment