Enabling transformative change through systems learning
A Food System Horizons Webinar
FRIDAY, 12 September 2025
12:00 to 1:00PM AEST
ONLINE MS Teams
What does the journey towards food system transformation look like?
Join us we hear from a diverse panel of experts on sustainable transitions, as they propose a systems learning approach as a distinctive way of building change-making capacities through learning and adaptation towards more sustainable, healthy, nutritional, and equitable food systems. The approach is centred on empirical experiments and place-based case studies across sectors and scales (i.e., local, national, international). It aims to generate evidence-based guidance to bridge the gap between knowing what needs to change and understanding how to make it happen.
The team investigated agri-food systems and their intersections with energy, environment, and international development, as a way of developing a platform of frameworks, insights and options that can be scaled to other domains where systems innovation is needed to improve economic, social and environmental performance. By reflecting on real-world cases, the systems learning approach forefronts systematic learning as an enabler of capacity building in uncertain environments, helping anticipate challenges and adapt interventions over time.
Read more about navigating food system transitions.
Who will you hear from?
Dr Enayat Moallemi, Speaker and panellist
Dr Enayat Moallemi is a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Agriculture and Food and is based in Canberra. Enayat uses modelling tools and knowledge co-production methods to design and evaluate decisions for sustainability transitions in an uncertain future. He approaches research questions with a holistic view of system interactions and multi-sector dynamics between societal (poverty, equity) and environmental (energy, climate, food and land) domains, framed by the Sustainable Development Goals. He also designs his research methodology using a range of knowledge sources and methods often from Decision-Making Under Deep Uncertainty, Multi-Sector Dynamics, System Dynamics, and Integrated Assessment Modelling.
Karen Cain, Panellist
Karen Cain has significant senior experience working across government, leading strategic innovation, and developing and implementing policy in the public sector. Her experience in developing and delivering on issues that reflect what matters to community and government led to appointment as Chief Executive Officer at the Latrobe Valley Authority, which she held from April 2017 to December 2021. Karen is now partnering with agencies to address fair, just and sustainable transition practice in regional Australia with a focus on collaboration and innovation, bringing research and regional knowledge together to build collective action and benefit, locally and nationally. Karen is a fellow of Leadership Victoria’s Williamson Community Leadership Program. She was awarded the Institute for Public Administration Australia Victorian Top 50 Public Sector Women Award in 2018 and was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll for Women in 2023.
Dr Costanza Conti, Panellist
Costanza Conti, PhD is a food systems researcher with over eight years of experience working across global and regional programs to understand how interventions can enable just, inclusive, and sustainable system change. She has led evidence syntheses, analysed transformation pathways and designed M&E frameworks across diverse country contexts, with a particular focus on smallholders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Currently Policy Research Lead at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, she supports research and learning across 60+ programs. She has previously contributed to the EAT-Lancet Commission 2.0, CSIRO’s food system work, FAO knowledge platforms, and CGIAR initiatives.
Dr Andy Hall, Host
Dr Andy Hall is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Agriculture and Food and is based in Canberra, Australia. He is a science and technology policy analyst with a specialisation in the study and design of agriculture innovation processes, policies and practices. Andy did pioneering research on the nature and performance of agricultural innovation systems and currently researchers the enablers of transformational innovation in agri-food systems.
Is there another chance to join?
The presentation part of this webinar will be recorded and be made available on this page for those who are not able to attend on the day. Discussions will not be recorded.
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