10/16/2026
Seat civil society at the design table, not just the delivery table. 🌍
What if the people closest to the problem
helped design the solution?
That was the question our President & CEO johnrobertmcphail put to the room at UNGA81, speaking on the closing panel of the Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security’s first Annual Members Meeting in New York. He shared the stage with ministers and leaders from Bayer, OCP Group, UNFPA, and AAAID.
The message: for too long, civil society has been brought in late. Consulted, but not seated. Subcontracted, but not partnered.
We know there’s a better way, because we’ve done it. For more than ten years, Partners of the Americas has managed an Education Innovation Fund, where government, private investors, and civil society work side by side. It has leveraged over $20 million in shared commitments. That's education, not food security, which is the point: this is a tripartite model, and it transfers.
Young people aren’t only beneficiaries of our food systems, they will be the ones running them. Let’s invite them to the design table now. 💪
Thank you to the Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security for the platform. 🙏
