Beans and other pulse crops are central to the transition towards a more sustainable agri-food system, providing a simple, scalable and culturally resonant solution to address the converging crises of climate change, malnutrition, and food insecurity while increasing the resilience of local and global food systems. Investments in the production and consumption of beans and other pulses have the potential to address the world’s most pressing challenges, including malnutrition, the rise in diet-related non-communicable diseases, biodiversity loss, poverty and inequality, accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Finger on the Pulse is a Policy Pathway to Harness beans to drive action on sustainable food systems and nutrition.
Key actors in this story of progress so far, are the more than 120 coalition Beans is How coalition partners. Integral to the policy pathways publication, was the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, together with the Science and Innovation Advisory Council, Claire Brosnihan at One Acre Fund, Betty Kibaara at Rockefeller Foundation, David Laborde, FAO, bean champions Chef Sam Kass, Dr Agnes Kalibata, and thanks to Jean Claude Rubyago, PABRA.
Beans are a climate-smart superfood that can transform public procurement —including school meals, foodbanks, hospitals and prisons — boost local economies, and build resilient food systems. By investing in bean-forward policies, governments can deliver triple wins: better public health, affordable social safety nets that address food insecurities, and stronger climate resilient value chains that are favourable to farmers big and small.
Success will be measured when there is an increase in bean-focussed policy adoption.
Many policies that are created at the national level, are adopted at subnational level. By embedding beans in key national government approaches, including in procurement and value chains, beans can have a greater impact globally.
Embed beans in key development and policy frameworks to create a whole government approach
Embed beans in public procurement
Invest in climate-resilient bean value chains and farmers
For more information contact: info@sdg2advocacyhub.org