Your Excellency Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 

Your Excellency Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, 

His Eminence Tshoki Lopen,

Honourable Mary Robinson, 

Honourable Ban Ki-moon, 

Honourable Ministers, partners, farmers, youth representatives, colleagues,  

Good morning and Kuzuzangpola. 

On behalf of UNDP, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the first-ever Global Conscious Food Systems Summit being staged here at the spectacular Dungkar Dzong. Its verdant mountains are a fitting backdrop for our discussions over the next few days—how to better protect the people and places putting food on our tables.

Food systems shape our greatest challenges:  

The millions of farmers who lose their crops to climate change and cannot feed their families; 

The loss of nature on up to a third of global farmlands, unable to sustain pollination; 

And the injustice of a child slowly starving, as conflicts, and living costs, spiral. 

Yet food systems are also part of the solution.  

They can restore ecosystems, create livelihoods and unite communities. 

Last week, I was at COP17 in Mongolia, where much discussion focused on restoring land, healthy ecosystems, and climate resilience. 

Our gathering today is a continuation of the same conversation. Because food security depends on the health of our land, the ecosystems sustaining it, and the communities caring for them.  

For decades, we have focused on policies, innovation and finance to make food systems more sustainable and fairer. This Summit invites a deeper question: what becomes possible when we also address the values, mindsets, and relationships shaping them? 

Because food systems are human systems. 

Lasting change requires three shifts: in what we value; whose voices are heard; and how we direct finance: 

First, we must think less about what we can take from the land today, and more about what we protect for tomorrow, rewarding practices that restore soil, protect biodiversity, save water, and build resilience. 

Second, local communities should be central in decision-making. Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth have vital knowledge and experience to change food systems for the better. 

Third, finance, governance, and markets must incentivize healthier food systems, healthier ecosystems, and healthier societies,  

Bhutan has long demonstrated that development goes beyond growth; that wisdom, compassion, and respect for nature can guide practical choices and public policy.  

Working with the Royal Government, GEF, GCF and Japan, UNDP has supported nature-friendly agriculture through integrated farming. 

Globally, our Food and Power Initiative helps governments, farmers, and researchers to understand and address the power imbalances shaping food systems. And our Conscious Food Systems Alliance has empowered 300 members with the skills to tackle those challenges, while testing solutions. 

The lesson is clear: when people, nature, and policies work together, change is possible. 

UNDP stands ready to strengthen the framework you are co-creating, to turn values into action, and consciousness into change, with policies, investments and partnerships for food systems that feed everyone, without costing the earth. 

My sincere thanks to the Royal Government of Bhutan for its leadership and hospitality, and to the Conscious Food Systems Alliance for its vision and partnership. 

May the seeds planted here grow far beyond Bhutan, inspiring food systems that nourish both people and planet. 

Thank you, and Tashi Delek.