Where food systems transformation in Viet Nam stands today: Report back from SHiFT stocktaking session

The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in Rome generated new attention to sustainable food systems and triggered national actions around the world. Since the 2021 UNFSS, 126 countries have adopted national pathways and 155 have appointed food systems national convenors. Countries are now preparing voluntary progress updates for the next global convening, UNFSS+4.  

While countries were gathering for the 2021 UNFSS, a group of researchers from across CGIAR, other academic institutions, NGOs, and donors were preparing a proposal for a new research program that would generate evidence designed to support countries in their ambitions to transform food systems in a healthier, sustainable direction. The CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Healthy Diets through Food Systems Transformation (SHiFT) was launched in January 2022. Quickly, SHiFT formalized partnerships with the food systems national convenors in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Viet Nam – known as SHiFT Strategic Partners – and SHiFT’s Country Coordinators were mobilized to provide technical support into their individual national food systems transformation processes to ensure there would be sufficient attention to sustainable healthy diets. 

As SHiFT wrapped up its initial phase at the end of 2024, a series of stocktaking workshops were held with the Strategic Partners in each focus country to review and assess each country’s unique food systems transformation process and discuss priorities moving forward. 

Insights from Viet Nam 

On October 23, 2024, more than fifty participants attended the SHiFT stocktaking workshop in Ha Noi. Representatives from the three Strategic Partners – Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS), National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), and the Institute for Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) – and other stakeholders that have been supporting both national and subnational implementation of Viet Nam’s National Action Plan for Food Systems Transformation known as the NAP-FST attended.  

Part of the reason for the workshop was to reflect on Viet Nam’s food systems transformation process and SHiFT’s contributions. The Government of Viet Nam reached several key implementation milestones for the NAP-FST in 2024. For example, it has designed and developed a Partnership Agreement for Transparent, Responsible and Sustainable Food Systems Transformation in Vietnam (FST-Partnership). Experts from SHiFT joined the FST-Partnership but were also part of the official committee to design it. To date, more than 40 partners have formally joined this innovative multilateral partnership to combine national research and government expertise with international development support. Its objectives are to facilitate inter-sectoral mechanisms, strengthen capacity, and share experiences in FST-NAP implementation and to mobilize resources to improve key aspects of the food system, promote responsible consumption, and ensure healthy diets.  

The Government has also begun subnational implementation of the NAP-FST. Earlier in 2024, MARD identified two provinces – Dong Thap and Son La – to begin implementing the NAP-FST at provincial-level. A working group to coordinate this process was formed. The SHiFT Country Coordinator was invited to co-lead. SHiFT provided technical support to provincial officials to develop priority activities needed to implement the NAP-FST and to draft a set of indicators, then select and apply them in a provincial-level action plan and M&E framework. SHiFT has been actively involved in organizing provincial-level stakeholder consultations to meet these goals and demonstrating that sustainable healthy diets is an important goal of food systems transformation. The work will continue in 2025. 

The SHiFT training of trainers (ToT) program on food systems has been incorporated as part of the subnational implementation of the NAP-FST. The ToT program, co-designed by SHiFT and in-country partners, fills identified gaps in awareness of how sustainable healthy diets can be achieved through food systems transformation and builds skills in how to apply food systems approaches in policy processes. After the initial cohort of expert trainers was trained in 2023, the in-country partners involved developed and implemented a targeted strategy to build the capacity of provincial staff to implement the NAP-FST. Experts from SHiFT continue to provide support when requested, but the ToT program has transitioned into a largely partner-led activity that will grow in 2025. 

During the stocktaking workshop, grantees from a 2024 MSc small grant scheme from SHiFT presented their master’s level research. The purpose of the grant scheme was to enrich master’s-level research projects on topics related to sustainable healthy diets, the food environment, and/or food systems. In Viet Nam, the linkages SHiFT facilitated between the small grant scheme and the ToT program opened new partnership opportunities with local universities. Staff from Can Tho University have taken a strong interest in leading the rollout of the ToT program and are building a community of academic experts with a shared understanding of how to work together on food systems transformation. 

As SHiFT moves forward into a new phase in 2025, workshop participants from CGIAR and from the Strategic Partners institutions expressed a mutual desire to continue this fruitful collaboration. CGIAR experts will continue to actively contribute to two of the four technical working groups of the FST-Partnership and continue to provide coordination support in the subnational implementation process and the rollout of the ToT program. 

Read about SHiFT’s other stocktaking meetings in Bangladesh and Ethiopia.

Header image: Group photo during stocktaking meeting in Viet Nam / Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT.

The International Food Policy Research Institute and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT lead SHiFT in close collaboration with Wageningen University and Research and with contributions from the International Potato Center. SHiFT combines high-quality nutritional and social science research capacity with development partnerships to generate innovative, robust solutions that contribute to healthier, more sustainable dietary choices and consumption of sustainable healthy diets. It builds on CGIAR’s unparalleled track record of agricultural research for development, including ten years of work on food systems and nutrition under the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.