Food is more than what ends up on our plates; it is the result of a complex system that links farmers, traders, processors, distributors, consumers, and waste managers in an interconnected chain. Food systems determine which foods are produced, how they move from field to market, who can afford them, and what people ultimately choose to eat. When these systems are sustainable, they support food and nutrition security, decent livelihoods, and a healthy environment.
In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, a new Subnational Food Systems Profile has been developed to help guide that transformation toward more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive outcomes. This profile looks across the entire journey of food from production to disposal and indicates simple but powerful information on where we can intervene to make the system work better for people and the planet.
Transforming food systems is not something a single institution can do alone. It requires the active participation of government, research institutions, civil society, and the private sector, working from a shared understanding and vision. The idea behind developing a Food Systems Profile for Amhara was to create a common platform and evidence base that all these stakeholders can use when designing and implementing interventions.
The profile is built around five key components of the food system:
- Food system drivers
- Food supply chains
- Food environments
- Individual factors and consumer behaviors
- Food system outcomes
By organizing information in this way, the profile helps identify gaps, challenges, and strategic entry points for more sustainable transformation.
How the Profile Was Developed
The Amhara Region Food Systems Profile is the product of a highly consultative process. From August to December 2025,
a series of workshops brought together a wide range of food system stakeholders operating in the region with the involvement of representatives from key national ministries and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). Through these workshops, participants identified and prioritized indicators for each component of the food system, ensuring that the chosen measures were both relevant to the region and supported by reliable data.
The profile draws primarily on recent statistical data from regional Statistical Offices and Sector Offices. These data were used to visualize and briefly describe Amhara’s food system status across the selected indicators, making it easier for decision-makers to see where progress is being made and where more attention is needed.
What the Profile Will Be Used For
The Amhara Region Food Systems Profile is intended as a practical decision-support tool. It provides guidance for regional decision making, helps inform sectoral planning, and supports the identification of priority interventions across food and nutrition, economy, health, environment, and other sectors. Policymakers and practitioners can use it to align programs and investments with the most pressing food system challenges and opportunities.
Beyond Amhara, the profile can serve as a reference for other regions and partners interested in developing their own subnational food systems profiles, offering both a conceptual framework and a tested process for multi-stakeholder engagement.
Key Lessons Learned
The process of developing the profile generated important lessons that go beyond the document itself. Stakeholders gained experience in jointly reviewing their situation against food system indicators and in debating which indicators truly matter most for the region’s development priorities. It also highlighted how crucial it is to back chosen indicators with robust, accessible data. The work exposed gaps and trade-offs in indicator selection and use, for example, where data are missing, incomplete, or not comparable across sectors. Rather than being seen as obstacles, these gaps are viewed as opportunities to strengthen implementation, monitoring, and evaluation in the future.
Turning Insights into Action
Based on these lessons, several key areas for intervention have been proposed:
- Establishing a dedicated monitoring and evaluation (M&E) unit staffed with appropriate experts
- Systematically identifying, selecting, and prioritizing indicators across all relevant sectors
- Improving routine recording and documentation of performance data on these priority indicators
- Creating a common regional platform, a central database, for storing and sharing food system data
- Ensuring that sectoral planning and budgeting are aligned with the prioritized indicators
Collaboration and Support
The development of the Amhara Region Food Systems Profile was through support and involvement of Bahir Dar
University, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, the Food and Nutrition Society of Ethiopia, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Agricultural Transformation Institute, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the Better Diets and Nutrition Science Program of the CGIAR. This collaborative effort illustrates how regional institutions and international partners can work together to generate the knowledge needed for transformative change in food systems.
