Palestine
Food and Nutrition Security Council, with the SDG2 Working Group
Palestine pairs a high-level Food and Nutrition Security Council with a multistakeholder working group that serves as its technical secretariat. Both are convened by the Ministry of Agriculture. This institutional set up can be classed as a dual, state-centric mechanism.
Food and Nutrition Security Council
Institutional set-up and structure. Established in 2021 and chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture, which also acts as its secretariat and as convening body for inter-institutional coordination and policy dialogue. It is supported by the SDG2 Working Group.
Mandate and decision-making power. The Council is the political locus at which inter-ministerial decisions are made. It is responsible for ensuring a smooth high-level political decision-making process on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture; inter-ministerial coordination, particularly where policies, strategies or actions concern more than one ministry; and resource mobilisation for development financing, within government and, where necessary, with the development partner community. It coordinates and oversees the interventions of the national food and nutrition security policy and its investment plan.
The Council is tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Agenda setting: deciding on goals and strategic priorities
Policy formulation and decision making: deciding and enacting policies
Implementation: coordinating financial resources and the budget
Who is involved
• Government sectors: social development; agriculture, as chair; health; education and higher education; national economy; local government; and labour
How it works in practice
• The Ministry of Agriculture initiates and convenes inter-institutional coordination and policy dialogue on the subjects the national policy addresses
• Works with the SDG2 Working Group to monitor physical and financial progress, report and communicate results, and advocate for the policy or regulatory changes required
SDG2 Working Group
Institutional set-up and structure. Established around 2020 under the national Agenda 2030 arrangements, alongside eleven other goal-level working groups, and chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture. It serves as the technical secretariat of the Food and Nutrition Security Council and is supported by the Ministry's policy unit. Membership is kept to no more than fifteen.
Mandate and decision-making power. The Working Group is a multistakeholder body whose role is technical and operational: it considers strategies, policies and interventions related to Sustainable Development Goal 2 for possible follow-up at ministerial or governmental level. It reviews and develops national priority goals at target level, taking account of their interrelationship with the other goals; exchanges information on initiatives and interventions planned or under implementation; reviews and develops priority interventions; and contributes to the national review of progress on the sustainable development agenda. With the Ministry's policy unit, it monitors and evaluates food and nutrition security interventions.
The Working Group together are tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Agenda setting: advocacy and dialogue; deciding on goals and strategic priorities
Policy formulation and decision making: providing technical advice; coordinating policy development; developing policies for consideration by the relevant authorities
Monitoring and evaluation: tracking progress, evaluating and reporting
Who is involved
Government: agriculture, as chair, with the Prime Minister's Office, education, health, labour, local government, national economy and social development, alongside the environment quality authority, the water authority, the cooperative work agency, agricultural credit and disaster risk institutions, and the central bureau of statistics
Non-state members: representatives of local non-governmental organisations and of the food industries union
How it works in practice
• Membership is capped at fifteen so that the group can work effectively
• The group decides the frequency of its own meetings at its first session, with monthly meetings recommended
• Acts as technical secretariat to the Council, assisted by the policy unit of the Ministry of Agriculture
Evidence base: policy documents only, 2026. Last updated: September 2026.
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