Food and Water Systems in the Intelligent Age 2024

to users and whole countries. Thus, private companies and entities can share their data as they get benefits from it. The neutral initiative or manager of the stack would also help to incentivize and anonymize proprietary data where needed and allow for greater security of contributions of sensitive information that is nevertheless critical to consider for informed decision-making. The stack manager can promote tangible benefits and incentives to encourage data sharing from different sources. This demonstration of value can also serve as a mechanism to highlight the validity and importance of the stack framework. –Leveraging nature markets and innovative financing for multiplying benefits . As such, alongside technology, establishment and communication costs, key financing needs will include an investment in skills, monitoring and maintenance of the stack infrastructure as well as digital infrastructure needs. Various sources of financing, including multilateral systems (e.g. the World Bank) and the development of philanthropic-public-private partnerships, can catalyse the establishment after the stack facilitates digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), which unlocks results-based financing. In the long run, water outcomes can be used as a measurable statistic combined with the collective analysis from the stack, which can link water and food to climate and nature finance, thereby using carbon, water, biodiversity and other credits to incentivize adoption. –Convene a multi-ministerial and multistakeholder coordinating mechanism to coordinate the development of the stack, including key issue areas to focus on. To begin with, ministries of agriculture, food processing, water, environment and information, communication and technology will be critical stakeholders alongside multilateral institutions, the private sector, farmer organizations, civil society and others. This approach will also allow for further understanding and integration of related ministries or agencies while allowing national or sub-national governments to adapt the stack to their needs and local contexts. Additionally, ownership by the public sector can unlock development funding, as the stack can be used to make the investment case for long- term and integrated action on food and water. –Integrate food and water outcomes into national action plans , including climate and social development targets, the national food systems pathways developed from the United Nations (UN) Food Systems Summit, national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAP), water roadmaps and more. It is also critical to adapt the stack development to the national digitization and AI plans. Through a significant evidence base and the aggregation of information from different sectors, the stack will guide the required mindset changes across different parts of the economy with specific output metrics (e.g. water productivity or water use effectiveness) that directly affect food and water outcomes. This alternative framing will produce greater social inclusion for youth, women and disadvantaged groups. –Precompetitive industry collaboration is critical to driving implementation . It is key to work with private sector actors and private users in the food and water systems. These actors are likely to drive rapid adoption as they see the value of applying technology and AI across the value chain. Industry collaboration is essential to driving the solution safely in real-world scenarios while maintaining user trust and system integrity. In addition, mutual benefits and incentives need to be developed based on the stakeholder type. –Future-proof for improved resilience and decision-making on new innovation . As the stack develops, building on the capabilities, accounting for future required decision-making in food and water – for example, water use in future food innovation or the water footprint of AI – will be key. AI is an important tool in translating data into actionable steps, but as it scales, its own water footprint should be considered. As demonstrated by the use cases in Chapter 2, the stack should be implemented first in a few pilot circumstances, working with farmers to optimize their water consumption. This could be a collaboration between national and sub-national governments, neutral parties, and farmer and community organizations in an area to continue to build on the framework and recommendations in this paper. The Global Future Council will work with the World Bank and other key stakeholders to create such pilots in a few relevant countries or sub-national regions that have the data and enabling environment in place. The use of data stacks such as those proposed here – together with other cutting-edge technologies – should be an essential cornerstone in the creation of a new generation of young leaders who can help to build a secure water-food future. The transformation of smallholder farming requires significant support in terms of access to knowledge, finance and markets. This, in turn, requires a cadre of leaders on the ground who can support small farmers and farmer-producer organizations in the transition towards strategies that benefit their families, communities and the planet. This group of leaders must be prepared effectively through agricultural higher education and technical and vocational education and training institutions so that, over the next couple of decades, farmers around the world (especially small farmers) receive the support they need to transform their farms and provide a dignified livelihood for their families. The transformation of smallholder farming requires significant support in terms of access to knowledge, finance and markets. Food and Water Systems in the Intelligent Age 18