Page 14 - GUIDELINES FOR FOOD SYSTEMS ISSUES PRIORITIZATION, ACTOR AND ACTION MAPPING at sub-national levels in Vietnam

Figure 1. Food system framework used for the guidelines

Source: Fanzo et al. (2020), adapted from HLPE (2017)

Food systems issues refer to any challenge or problem related to food production,
distribution, consumption, and the outcomes of those processes on nutrition and health,
socio-economics, or the environment. Issues of food systems vary according to different
contexts and locations. Descriptions of food systems issues are featured in many high-
profile reports or publications, including FAO (2020), Global Panel on Agriculture and
Food Systems for Nutrition (2016), and HLPE (2020). Food systems can encompass a
wide range of topics, including but not limited to food safety, food supply, food processing
and storage, food security, food waste, sustainable agriculture, food equity, climate
change, nutrition and health, ethical and environmental concerns, global trade and
policy, health, diets, and others.

In the global context, according to Abdulai et al. (2023), seven food systems issues stand
out: undernutrition; overweight and obesity; inequality and exclusion; poor governance
and power concentration; food safety; environmental impact of food systems; and
resilience of food systems. Table 1 shows these seven food systems issues together
with additional issues that are also prominent in Vietnamese contexts, which are drawn
from the technical report led by MARD (2023) that was prepared support the approval of
NAP-FST.

14 Guidelines for food systems issues prioritization, actor and action mapping at subnational levels in Vietnam