Internationally-based indicators to measure Agri-food systems sustainability using food sovereignty as a conceptual framework

Agri-food systems are essential not only in achieving food security but also in achieving both social and environmental sustainability. Despite different actors use different frameworks to define and assess food systems sustainability, there is growing consensus on the need to approach them from a complex socio-ecological systems perspective. However, existing frameworks often lack the political dimension in the analysis of food systems outcomes. Food sovereignty has emerged as a proposal that centers the discussion in the entire system putting emphasis on the political aspects of food. In this paper, using food sovereignty as a conceptual framework, we propose a quantitative methodology that allows analysis of the functioning of food systems at the international level. We present a database with 97 indicators distributed into six categories: 1) access to resources; 2) productive models; 3) commercialization; 4) food consumption and the right to food; 5) agrarian policies and civil society organization, and 6) gender. We also present the limitations found in developing the database as well as its potential applications for a wide variety of actors.