We’re gearing up for the year ahead, which promises to be a big one for food systems transformation. Shoutout to Oliver Camp of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition for compiling a list of 75 food-related events taking place throughout 2025.

As for us here at Devex, my colleague Ayenat Mersie has put together our own list of nine key global development moments and trends we’re watching in the food systems space. Among them are the road to the United Nations COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil; Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency and what that means for U.S. foreign food aid; a big push for nutrition funding at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris, France; and the African Union’s introduction of a new 10-year plan for agriculture on the continent.

We’re also closely watching how conflict and humanitarian crises are stretching foreign aid budgets — leading to devastating hunger and famine for millions of people in places including Sudan, South Sudan, Gaza, Haiti, and Mali. The World Food Programme faces a massive budget shortfall, forcing the organization to reduce the assistance it provides across the globe.

Meanwhile, the global institutions that monitor severe hunger and famine — namely, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC — have recently come under fire, FEWS Net both for its report warning of imminent famine in northern Gaza and for the fact that it withdrew said report under U.S. pressure, and IPC for its report showing the spread of famine in Sudan, which prompted the Sudanese government to withdraw its participation in the system. These events show the difficulty of assessing hunger levels in highly politicized crises and underscore the importance of monitoring to ensure aid delivery to vulnerable people.

This year the African Union will set in motion a new 10-year agenda to build strong and resilient agrifood systems across the continent, push climate-resilient agriculture, and improve people’s livelihoods. Starting tomorrow, African leaders will gather in Kampala, Uganda, for the Extraordinary Summit to adopt the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, or CAADP, strategy and action plan for 2026-2035. They’ll also adopt the Kampala Declaration to succeed the 2014 Malabo Declaration for accelerated agricultural growth.

Through these frameworks, governments “play a pivotal role in enabling climate adaptation for smallholder farmers, who are the backbone of Africa’s food systems,” Kalibata writes in an opinion piece for Devex’s “Predictions for Global Development” series for the year ahead.

“By implementing policies that prioritize climate-resilient agriculture, states can support farmers in adopting sustainable practices and accessing critical resources,” she adds.