Food sovereignty: conceptualization and system of assessment indicators

The paper aims to develop a comprehensive approach for assessing the level of food sovereignty through the creation of an indicator system designed to objectively evaluate multiple aspects of food sovereignty and identify critical challenges in the development of the agri-food system. The theoretical foundation draws on works by national and international scholars addressing food security and food sovereignty; a systematic analysis of this literature reveals the absence of comprehensive methodologies for evaluating food sovereignty levels within agri-food systems. Based on the authors' conceptualization of food sovereignty as the right of stakeholders across various levels of food systems (engaged in production, distribution, and consumption) to determine their own policies, strategies, and approaches to economic decision-making, indicators were developed to assess six key aspects: (1) the right to access healthy and culturally appropriate food; (2) the institutional freedom of agri-food system actors; (3) the extent of discrimination in participants' access to production resources; (4) the balance of institutional interests; (5) the sustainability of the agri-food system (encompassing economic, environmental, and social dimensions); and (6) the level of technological sovereignty. For each indicator, the calculation methodology, data sources, and threshold values are specified, with thresholds established through a combination of target-based and expert assessment approaches. Characterized by a multi-stakeholder orientation, systemic perspective, and institutional grounding in the concept of inclusive institutions, the proposed approach complements traditional methods for measuring food security. The methodology not only enables measurement of the current level of food sovereignty but also facilitates the diagnosis of specific institutional barriers that impede the self-determination of agri-food system participants, thereby providing a basis for developing targeted measures to overcome these barriers.