The recent CoP27 negotiations reminded us of a key aspect of multistakeholder working which is often left unspoken. The elephant in the room is the power dynamics among those involved, and the conflict which can arise.

At CoP27 the prominence of Loss and Damage discussions made power dynamics explicit – it was the less powerful countries telling the most powerful countries that they had suffered loss and damage as a result of their actions and should be compensated for that. With the USA and EU said to be responsible for 69% of emissions causing climate breakdown, and the global south accounting for just 8%, the disparity is clear.

It’s not just in CoP27 that power and conflict need to be brought into the open. In efforts to transform food and agricultural commodity systems, power differentials – between producing and consuming countries, between different parts of the value chain, and between different levels of government within countries – are often identified as a barrier to achieving the deep collaboration that is necessary for lasting transformation.

UNDP’s Food and Agricultural Commodities team convened a Co-Inquiry Group of sustainability practitioners to try to cut through this problem. A range of experts from UN agencies, universities, donors, NGOs and governments met to tackle the question:

How can we work more effectively with power and conflict in multi-stakeholder processes for changing food and agriculture systems?

Three main sets of actions emerged from the discussion – we need to create ‘safe spaces’ in which trust can be built; we need to use mechanisms such as skilled facilitation, bringing forward different voices, and shuttle diplomacy to shift power dynamics; and thirdly we need to upskill people to strengthen their capacity to work with power and conflict.