Interactive Zone for Transformative Solutions

Background

The World Food Forum has established itself as a leading global platform to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems, bringing together youth leadership, innovation, science, and investment to drive collective action. Within this framework, Latin America and the Caribbean are at a pivotal moment to showcase territory-based solutions, leveraging their unique capacities to advance more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems at regional and global levels.

In this context, the Pavilion offers an innovative and immersive space that connects high-level policymaking with multisectoral action and meaningful youth engagement, delivering tangible outcomes and scalable solutions aligned with the World Food Forum’s objectives. Through a regional experience embedded within the Forum, it provides governments, resource partners, academia, the private sector, and civil society with a strategic opportunity to foster partnerships, mobilize investment, and accelerate transformative impact.

The Interactive Zone, a dedicated subdivision of the LARC39 Exhibition, places a specific focus on financing, innovation, and youth leadership in support of agrifood systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, complementing the main exhibition that highlights FAO’s history, flagship initiatives, and cooperation programmes across the region.

This Interactive Zone will include two key features designed to deepen knowledge exchange and experience sharing.

Thematic Talks

Short, high-impact thematic talks will be held to share concise, focused insights into key topics related to agrifood investment, innovative financing approaches, and youth-led solutions, complementing the discussions of the special event agenda.

Monday, 02 March 2026

Time: 11:00
From Regional Platform to National Coalitions: Catalyzing Investments in the Amazon Bioeconomy

The Hand-in-Hand Amazon Bioeconomy Investment Program was designed, bringing together governments, regional cooperation organizations such as the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Cooperation (OTCA/ACTO), private sector actors, and development partners. Concrete country-level actions are now being discussed and shaped, enabling territories to advance from investment notes to bankable projects and partnerships.

Time: 14:30
National School Feeding Programme: Sustainable Actions in South-South Cooperation (Latin America and the Caribbean)

The event will discuss the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE), implemented by the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE) in partnership with the Ministry of Education. For seven decades, the programme has ensured daily meals for nearly 40 million students in Brazil’s public basic education system. This public policy goes beyond the distribution of meals: it promotes school attendance, contributes to students’ performance and cognitive development, stimulates local economies through the procurement of regional foods, values Brazilian food culture, and strengthens family farming by allocating at least 45 percent of its resources to small local producers who supply fresh products close to schools. In this way, it integrates rural and urban areas, production and education, nutrition and holistic learning.

On this occasion, within the framework of South-South Cooperation, the creation in 2018 of the Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES) will also be discussed. The network brings together 18 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Promoted by the Government of Brazil and FAO, RAES fosters exchanges of experiences and best practices, technical missions, professional training, and the collective construction of knowledge to strengthen universal and sustainable school feeding policies and programmes. These actions reaffirm the commitment to human and social development, supporting the region in consolidating fair and resilient agrifood systems, as evidenced by Brazil’s removal from the Hunger Map through structural policies and intersectoral coordination.

Time: 17:30
The Role of the Health Sector and the Potential of South-South Cooperation in Addressing Malnutrition and Promoting Healthy Food Systems

The event will discuss the synergistic determinants of malnutrition based on their impacts on the health sector, as well as the importance of “double-duty actions,” that is, interventions capable of simultaneously addressing all forms of malnutrition in order to build healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable food systems. In this regard, Brazilian experiences, lessons learned, and challenges from the health sector in promoting healthy food systems through intersectoral coordination will be analyzed.

The potential of South-South cooperation initiatives to overcome these challenges will also be addressed, taking as an example the Nourishing the Future project, developed within the framework of cooperation among the governments of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia with the World Food Programme (WFP). The project promotes the exchange of experiences among countries and the sharing of regional solutions to address, in an integrated manner, the synergistic determinants of malnutrition.

Tuesday, 03 March 2026

Time: 8:30
Food and Nutrition Security and the Fight Against Hunger

The Framework and Action Plan for the Promotion of Healthy and Adequate Diets, the Brazil Without Hunger Plan, and the institutional arrangement that brings together government and civil society in the formulation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies to combat hunger and guarantee the human right to adequate food, articulating federal, state, and municipal levels.

Time: 10:30
The Regional Youth Agenda 2026–2027: Priorities and Pathways for Agrifood Systems Transformation

Youth are a strategic force for innovation and sustainability in agrifood systems. In Latin America and the Caribbean, many young people live in rural areas and contribute across the food value chain. Ensuring their meaningful participation in policymaking processes is therefore essential for transformative change. FAO and the Government of Brazil supported a regional consultation process through which young people expressed their priorities and demands, which are expected to be considered by governments.

Time: 14:30
Brazil–FAO International Cooperation Programme: Feeding the Sustainable Future of Latin America and the Caribbean

The Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE) was established in 1987 to coordinate Brazil’s technical and humanitarian cooperation, both from Brazil to other countries and from abroad to Brazil, through bilateral, trilateral, decentralized, and bloc modalities. The trilateral South-South Technical Cooperation track with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was launched in 2008. Over the past 18 years, the partnership between the Government of Brazil and FAO has been grounded in dialogue, mutual learning, and shared governance, transforming South-South cooperation into concrete results for the region through sustainable solutions tailored to local realities. Throughout this long-standing partnership, approximately 35 initiatives have been developed in 32 countries across the region, including the promotion of cooperation networks with lasting impacts. The Brazil–FAO International Cooperation Programme has strengthened production, family farming, nutrition, and access to land. It has also consolidated agrifood systems as structural public policies, from rural areas to cities, with special emphasis on family farming, school feeding, public procurement, and food security, while integrating the environmental dimension into development strategies.

Thursday, 05 March 2026

Time: 10:30
Bridging investments and increasing the resilience of Family Farmers in the coffee sector.

Coffee is a strategic commodity and a vital source of income for millions of family farmers across Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet, the sector faces persistent global challenges and limited access to finance. These barriers constrain smallholders’ ability to thrive and to contribute to resilient, inclusive and sustainable coffee value chains.

Time: 14:00
Global Productive Forests Initiative

The Global Productive Forests Initiative (GPFI) is a proposal aimed at building a global understanding that it is possible to promote sustainable forest production models that combine environmental conservation, income generation, and socioeconomic development. The initiative is based on coordinated efforts among the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming (MDA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations / Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Agroecology Coalition, CGIAR / the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, and the NOW Partners Foundation.

Friday, 6 March 2026

Time: 8:30
Innovation in Action: How Nuclear Techniques Strengthen Agrifood Systems

Description: Discover how nuclear techniques are quietly transforming agrifood systems across Latin America and the Caribbean, with support from the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. Through vivid examples from the region, ranging from managing Mediterranean fruit fly outbreaks and tracing the origin of coffee beans, to protecting bananas from Fusarium Wilt, monitoring vanishing Andean glaciers, breeding livestock resistant to parasites, and reducing agricultural emissions, see how science becomes practical solutions that strengthen resilience, safeguard livelihoods, and drive sustainable agrifood development.

Interactive Booth

The zone will also feature an interactive booth showcasing FAO tools, initiatives, and platforms. This will include a live demonstration of the Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, offering data-driven insights into investment opportunities across the region, as well as examples of practical solutions that support the mobilization and scaling of agrifood financing.