Keynote Speaker

Sébastien Treyer is Executive Director of IDDRI, since January 2019 (he joined the institute in 2010 as Director of Programmes). He is also Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and member of the Lead Faculty of the Earth System Governance Network. A graduate from École Polytechnique, chief engineer of the Corps of Bridges, Water and Forests, and PhD in environmental management, he was in charge of foresight studies at the French Ministry of the Environment, and played an active role in leading the interface between science and policy and scientific programming at the European Commission, the French National Research Agency.

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Talk title: Foresight, policy change and transformation pathways: diversity of roles and approaches

Abstract
Food systems transformation is necessary to reach food and nutrition security in a sustainable and resilient way. Transformation is a long term endeavour, and necessitates collective changes in decisions within the food system, by both public and private players. In particular, policies can be both one of the most critical levers for transformation, but they can also represent strong factors of statu quo. Policy change for food systems transformation is thus particularly key.

The study of socio-technical transitions has shown that they rely on a collective capacity for change, guided by visions of the sustainable future of the food system, and of possible pathways to reach them. It has also demonstrated the existence of systemic socio-technical lock-ins, particularly clear in food systems. Unlocking the system to open up the possibility of a transformation pathway necessitates a clear strategy for change.

Foresight methods and approaches have been developed to enable collective debate about future changes, long term visions and pathways. They are very diverse, and can interact with policy processes in a variety of ways. This presentation will present this diversity in relation with the diversity of initial situations of interactions between policy processes and the reality of the food system.

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