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14 15 OPENING LINES I n the last fewyears,integrated and holisticways to address food-related challenges such as reducing foodwaste and loss,improving farmer livelihoods, expanding access to affordable food,and lowering the riskof nutrition-related non-communicable diseas- es have becomemore central to efforts by the Food andAgricultureOrganization of the UnitedNations (FAO) tomeet the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Oneway that FAO is working to address these issues globally is training FAO staff and national counterparts in adopting food systems thinking.Food systems touch onmanyaspects of society fromagricultural practices, businesses,farmers,consumers,government organiza- tions,and the environment. Byunderstanding the linkages between different ar- eas such as agriculture,trade,health and nutrition,rural livelihoods,and environmental sustainability,practi- tioners are better able to find the underlying causes, rather than just the symptoms,of unsustainable food ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS INTHE CARIBBEAN systems,and findways to improve their performance. This cross-cutting approachwas the focus of anOctober 2017training hosted byFAOSubregional Office for the Caribbean (SLC) in Bridgetown,Barbados.Theweek-long sessionwas part of FAOglobal training programon“Sus- tainable Food Systems andValue Chains”,which aims to promote food systems thinking and practice at FAOusing a value chain approach. The Caribbean session successfullywrapped up a series of trainings conducted at Headquarters and at FAORAPand FAOREUoffices since July.During the five-day training,27 participants fromacross the Caribbean including represen- tatives fromFAOand governments were introduced to the sustainable food systems (SFS) and sustainable food value chains (SFVC) approaches to better understand howthis thinking can be used in their day-to-daywork. “The trainingwas a great opportunity for FAO staff,its counterparts inmember countries and partners from regional organizations to learnwhat is actuallybehind the terminologyof food systems and value chains,as well as understand better howtheycanwork together towards sustainable food systems in the region,”saidHeiko Bam- mann,FAOTrade andMarkets Officer,who led the coordi- nation of the training on behalf of SLC.