Unleashing the power of vegetables:
New WorldVeg Global Strategy sets a bold direction for a healthier, wealthier, more resilient future
The World Vegetable Center has launched an ambitious eight-year Global Strategy that puts vegetables at the heart of the fight against malnutrition, poverty, and climate change. Developed through consultations with donors, partners, board members and staff, it sets out six Action Areas around which the Center will organize its work, with a focus on low and middle-income countries.
The Action Areas are:
- Climate resilience;
- Healthy diets;
- Vegetable biodiversity;
- Economic empowerment;
- Urban food systems; and
- Food safety and loss reduction.
The Strategy was officially launched at a special Friends of WorldVeg event in Dakar, Senegal, yesterday, alongside the Africa Food Systems Forum, which the Center sponsors.
(Left to right) WorldVeg Director General Marco Wopereis; WorldVeg Associate Director General Gabriel Rugalema; Nico Janssen of the Ikea Foundation; and the Friends of WorldVeg attendees at a special launch event for the WorldVeg Global Strategy 2026-2033 in Dakar, Senegal, yesterday. PIcs by Neil Palmer (WorldVeg).
“Now is the time to unleash the power of vegetables,” said Marco Wopereis, Director General of WorldVeg. “During uncertain times, we must stay aligned with the world’s most pressing societal and environmental challenges,” he continued.
“These include shifting diets and health burdens, rapid urbanization, climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and geopolitical instability that leaves millions displaced and vulnerable to malnutrition. By responding to these challenges through vegetable science and innovation, we can maximize our impact where it matters most.”
From overlooked to unstoppable
Vegetables remain under-prioritized in global research, receiving less that 15% of public R&D spending. This is despite World Health Organization guidelines recommending consumption of at least 400 g (or five portions) of fruit and vegetables per day, and the EAT-Lancet Commission recognising vegetables as central to diets that safeguard both human and planetary health.
Building on five decades of experience and research excellence, the WorldVeg Strategy 2026-2033 reaffirms the center as a global hub for vegetable science and innovation. It aims to deepen the Center’s engagement in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific. To achieve this, it envisions a doubling of its annual operating budget from USD30 million to USD60 million.
The WorldVeg Global Strategy will also:
- create two core Research Programs; one on Biological Sciences, and the other on Social Sciences and Nutrition;
- support the Center’s crop breeding work to improve vital vegetables like tomato, pepper, legumes, and cucurbits. Additional emphasis will be placed on “opportunity vegetables” like amaranth, which hold significant promise, especially in Africa where the Center plans a major expansion of its work;
- address vegetable supply, demand, and policy issues via the Push-Pull-Policy Framework;
- continue the Center’s Open Science approach with partnerships across governments, universities, NGOs, and businesses;
- continue to attract talent by supporting students and young researchers and sharing knowledge through networks, events and open platforms.
Work to prepare the Center for full implementation of the Strategy by 2026 is now underway. “This transitional phase is about laying a strong foundation for the next eight years of impact,” said Wopereis.
Click to download the World Vegetable Center Global Strategy 2026-2033.
WorldVeg is the only international non-profit organization with a global mandate for vegetables, and a leader in vegetable research and innovation thanks to long-term strategic funding from Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Germany, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan, as well as numerous project funders.
