**5. Final considerations**

Healthy, sustainable and inclusive food systems are on the global agenda and represent a fundamental condition for the health and well-being of populations. This worldwide effort establishes general guidelines and points to the need for profound changes in economies and ways of life, putting globalization in check. However, there is a need for valuing diversity in the search for solutions to local, regional and national issues. Ancestral knowledge emerges as elements to be revisited and an important asset among CPLP countries. Teaching-research-extension processes that take into account the dialog of knowledge and life in territories in different dimensions and diversity are potentially more appropriate for transforming the reality of many families into food insecurity. The strengthening of a national network of researchers is of paramount importance for each country to develop and implement appropriate policies capable of guaranteeing the well-being of its population. In turn, each national network is nourished and strengthened when interacting with other networks. This is the working logic of CPLP University Mechanism.

Although they conform to different realities, especially Brazil and Portugal, Portuguese-speaking countries have similar challenges for which the construction of solutions discussed in a community has been shown to be able to build paths. Much of the shared challenges, especially in the African countries of the bloc, are associated with young democracies, in need of consolidation. However, for the whole group, there is a need for the use of natural resources in order to guarantee sustainable and healthy production systems. In this context, the consolidation of research networks has become an effective instrument, as efforts and resources converge to overcome challenges. The paths paved by the debate and exchange of experiences strengthen the local networks, enhancing the efforts of the countries with regard to teaching, research and extension.
