A word from the interim coordinators

Dear friends and colleagues,

After months of collective design and careful alignment, we approach the moment when the rubber meets the road, as they say. Country-level roundtables are now translating intent into implementation, where good plans—and the trust behind them—need to turn into firm partnerships. We know the terrain is rocky: obstacles, busy calendars, misaligned budget cycles and bureaucracy are real. But we also count on the governments’ leadership and on partners’ willingness to think and act differently, so national plans can move forward quickly and, above all, serve the poorest and most vulnerable.

In this first round of roundtables, governments have put clear priorities on the table and asked us to organize around them. We are seeing focused discussions on how to achieve steady progress across a set of ambitious programs: home-grown school meals in Benin; smallholder support in Ethiopia; cash transfers in Haiti; water access for vulnerable communities in Kenya; and the scaling of cash transfers in Zambia. Roundtables are helping teams converge on realistic envelopes, roles, and timelines that match each government’s plan and sequence.

We are smack in the middle of the most intense period of the year for the Alliance—at the end of an already very intense year. On October 13, in Rome, during the World Food Forum, the Board of Champions will hold its second meeting, including a special session to inaugurate the operations of the permanent Support Mechanism and its Rome-based headquarters. With staffing coming online and regional liaison capacity soon to also ramp up, we’ll be hopefully better equipped to help country teams solve bottlenecks and keep partners aligned through implementation. Our small, but very brave, transition support team is composed of people working part time in this initiative, all having their own regular full-time jobs on top. Back-up is mercifully around the corner, though.

Preparations are also accelerating for the First Leaders’ Meeting in Doha on November 3. We expect countries and organizations to renew their commitments to the Alliance and announce new partnerships and plans consistent with national priorities and our shared goals. The approach remains pragmatic and action-oriented: concise commitments, clear roles, and delivery pathways that can move fast—and scale responsibly.

Finally, COP30 is on the horizon. Work is advancing on a leaders-level declaration that brings hunger, poverty, and human-centered climate action to the front stage—shining a light on the unequal impacts of climate change on people’s lives and elevating adaptive social protection, small-scale producer resilience, and livelihood opportunities for the poorest as core climate solutions.

Thank you to everyone leaning in—government focal points, development banks, UN agencies, funds, foundations, and the knowledge community. Please keep bringing the right people to the table, and come ready to close the remaining gaps. We will continue to do our part to help these partnerships come together—focused, feasible, and faithful to what countries are asking us to deliver.

With appreciation and resolve,

Fábio Veras, Renato Godinho and Saulo Ceolin

Coordinators for the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty’s interim support team

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