Just Rural Transition

The Just Rural Transition initiative brings together food producers, governments, businesses, investors, civil society, rural and indigenous peoples to champion equitable solutions to food systems challenges.

We foster a global community of public and private sector stakeholders. Through their own commitments and by creating new partnerships, our stakeholders design, implement, and scale integrated and inclusive approaches that contribute to the objectives of the JRT Vision Statement.

While more food is being produced today than ever before, food systems are failing to deliver for people, nature, and climate.

• Two billion people lack access to sufficient, nutritious food.
• Agriculture workers and their families make up two thirds of the 740 million people facing extreme poverty.
• Over a billion tonnes of food is wasted each year.
• Indigenous peoples and rural communities manage 65% of the world’s land, yet governments recognise their rights to only 18% of this land.
• Rural and indigenous communities, food production, and key ecosystems are under growing stress from climate change.

Providing nutritious food to a growing global population while protecting natural systems which sustain life is a key challenge of this decade.

But efforts to transform food and land use systems will falter if they neglect the social implications of this transformation and fail to deliver equitable outcomes and alternative livelihoods for food producers.

Food producers are at the heart of our food systems. They play an essential role in shaping solutions to scale up sustainable agriculture and a just rural transition that enhances resilient livelihoods and rural communities.

Launched at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, the JRT supports and amplifies innovative and ambitious policies, investments, and multi-stakeholder solutions that deliver positive outcomes for people, planet, and economies. We aim to transform food and land use systems by:

• Building an action-oriented evidence base
• Mobilising stakeholders and catalysing partnerships
• Strengthening collective purpose

The JRT helps forge a common vision and collective leadership. We engage leaders at national, regional, and international levels to increase awareness and accelerate action by a broad range of stakeholders.

We will highlight sustainable agriculture and the principles of a just transition within international forums such as the UN Food Systems Summit and COP26.

We are grateful for the support of our funder(s), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and ClimateWorks Foundation. We also recognise and welcome the valuable in-kind contributions of members of the JRT community. To discuss opportunities to support our work, please contact jrt@merid.org.