Photo: © GIZ

Imagine opening a giant puzzle box with thousands of pieces but no picture on the cover. Some pieces look like they belong together. Others seem connected but don’t quite fit. Everyone around the table is working hard, but on different corners of the puzzle.

That is what agri-food systems transformation often looks like in practice.

When we talk about transforming agri-food systems, we are not simply talking about improving agriculture. We are talking about how agriculture connects with health, nutrition, climate, trade, environment, education, and livelihoods. Everything is linked.

Yet most of our institutions were built to work in sectors; agriculture here, health there, environment somewhere else. Plans are often developed in parallel. Mandates are fragmented. As a result, delivery is slow, impacts are diluted, and accountability becomes unclear.

The new agri-food systems thinking highlights overlaps at the outcome level: food security, resilience, nutrition, and sustainability. At output levels, different goals add more overlaps. But turning this thinking into coordinated action remains difficult.

Who guides fitting the pieces?

Across sectors, every implementer proudly highlights project results. And many of these achievements are important. But do they intentionally come together to create collective impact?

It is difficult to answer “yes” with confidence.

The core issue is rarely a lack of policy intentions or technical expertise. Instead, it is a lack of governance coherence. Simply put, the ability of institutions and stakeholders to coordinate and act collectively toward shared outcomes. Governance is often treated as a cross-cutting issue. In reality, it is the spine. It determines whether actors align, whether resources follow shared priorities, and whether decisions are coordinated across formal and informal structures.

Without this coherence, even strong policies struggle to translate into impact.

Are we up to the task?

Weak coordination across sectors and levels of government has caused frustration in the agri-food sector, especially when national priorities like food and nutrition security and resilience remain far from achieved.

In Kenya, devolution adds another important layer. Counties play a central role in agricultural delivery. They develop their own policies and, in some cases, may choose to localize national policies, or not. This creates opportunity but also complexity. Gaps often appear between national and county governments, across sectors, and between planning cycles and political timelines. Alignment across these dimensions is essential. Investment must be directed toward agreed, integrated outcomes. Not scattered across disconnected priorities.

The complexity of devolution and agri-food systems thinking makes coordination a first-order governance issue. Transformation is not just about better projects. It is about better alignment.

Fitting pieces in reality

Kenya’s experience illustrates this clearly.

Under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), countries develop strategic and investment plans. In Kenya, this includes the Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS) and the incoming National Agri-food Systems Investment Plan (NASIP). Both documents are well-articulated. The challenge has been implementation and especially in coordination. One key issue was the weak institutionalization of the delivery unit responsible for driving implementation. Without strong legal anchoring and authority, coordination efforts faltered.

The new CAADP Kampala Agenda recognizes that political leadership, governance, and institutional capacity are essential from the outset, not as an afterthought or only in mentions. Currently, the Global Programme Sustainable Agricultural Systems and Policies (AgSys) Kenya Country Measure is supporting development of a new NASIP. This presents an opportunity to strengthen coherence and aligning resources to core priorities, unlocking private sector investment, and improving coordination.

A recent workshop on “Strengthening existing agri-food systems actor coordination mechanisms in Kenya” in partnership with TMG Research underlined that this will only succeed with sustained political commitment and leadership.

Coordination at the county level

At sub-national level, efforts are underway to strengthen coordination through County Agriculture Sector Steering Committees (CASSCOMs). An assessment conducted through AgSys in partnership with TMG Research identified common gaps such limited legal and institutional anchoring, inadequate funding, and weak monitoring and reporting.

Yet there is real promise.

CASSCOMs are increasingly recognized as formal multi-stakeholder platforms. They can anchor Technical Working Groups and reduce duplication. For example, a Technical Working Group on Agroecology could support implementation of the National Agroecology Strategy for Food Systems Transformation. CAADP strategic objectives can also be translated into county-level roadmaps anchored in these platforms. When properly empowered, such platforms move beyond ad-hoc consultation. They become spaces for decision-making and coordinated problem-solving.

This is how coordination shifts from meetings to measurable outcomes.

Final take: Stay curious

The real shift required is not more technical projects. It’s a stronger institutional alignment.

Effective agri-food systems transformation requires governance systems that can think and act systemically. This means clarifying roles, aligning incentives, strengthening existing coordination platforms, developing shared outcome frameworks with common metrics, empowering platforms like CASSCOMs with real authority, and rewarding leadership that promotes collaboration rather than institutional gatekeeping.

Transformation is not blocked by a lack of ideas. It is slowed by how we organize ourselves to act on them.

Quite the head-spinning puzzle, but one we can solve if we focus on how the pieces fit together.

Workshop held in Nairobi in January 2026 ⎮ Visual: © GIZ/Jeffrey Ngari

Additional Information

The CASSCOM report

Contact the author

Let me hear your experiences, tips, and advice via jeffrey.ngari@giz.de