Instruments and barriers to the transformation of global food governance

This article examines the institutional prerequisites, instruments, and barriers to transforming global food governance amid deepening geo-economic conflicts, climate risks, and disruptions to international supply chains. The study aims to justify an approach to harmonizing international trade rules, humanitarian mechanisms, investment policy, and national food security strategies. The methodological framework consists of institutional and systemic approaches, a comparative analysis of international documents, a structural-functional systematization of governance instruments, and a critical synthesis of scientific publications. The paper establishes that the existence of numerous international organizations does not, by itself, guarantee the coherence of management decisions, since the mandates, financial capabilities, and accountability mechanisms of various institutions do not align. The paper distinguishes regulatory, coordination, financial and investment, informational, and humanitarian and logistical instruments of influence on food systems. The effectiveness of these instruments depends on the ability to prevent crises, maintain food availability during shocks, and restore productive capacity afterward. The key barriers remain asymmetric states’ bargaining power, fragmented information systems, conflicts between trade and security priorities, limited long-term financing, and insufficient integration of vulnerable countries into decision-making. The study proposes an analytical matrix to align management tools with these barriers, along with a sequence for evaluating their effectiveness. The study pays particular attention to Ukraine’s role as a producer and exporter of agri-food products, as well as to the impact of transportation and logistics resilience on international food availability. The study examines the characteristics of interorganizational coordination in international cooperation and identifies the need to improve mechanisms for harmonizing management decisions. It justifies the feasibility of shifting from a predominantly reactive response to crises to comprehensive management of risks, investment resources, and the accountability of international cooperation participants for achieving defined results. The study identified opportunities to apply the proposed approaches to developing and implementing international cooperation programs, improving mechanisms for inter-institutional interaction, evaluating the effectiveness of management decisions, and setting priorities for institutional reforms. Keywords: global food governance, food security, international institutions, trade policy, food systems, institutional barriers, international coordination, logistical resilience, globalization, investments, competitiveness.