FAO Deputy Director General Maria Helena Semedo presents FAO’s work on cities

Together with partners, FAO’s Urban Food Agenda helps cities and local governments promote multi-level food governance and the institutionalization of their food strategies as critical part of agrifood systems transformation.  

This was one of the main messages that FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo outlined in her keynote address during the 6th  Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs, held at the European Committee of the Regions. 

“FAO supports cities to do so by establishing governance mechanisms, such as food policy councils and food labs, by developing holistic food strategies and agrifood innovation and by providing guidance on integrated urban planning and approaches that can create co-benefits and reduce the impact of urban areas”, she added. 

DDG Semedo also emphasized the important role of the UN Food Systems Summit Coalition on Urban Food Systems as a platform where all levels of governments and relevant stakeholders can take action for sustainable urban food systems transformation. Furthermore, she informed the participants that urbanization will be the focus of the 2023 edition of FAO's flagship report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, to be launched during the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF), this July. The report will highlight how urbanization affects the availability and affordability of healthy diets, and in turn, food security and nutrition. 

Semedo’s keynote address was part of the roundtable panel “Cities for Sustainable Food Systems”, which included the participation of the Chair of the World Committee for Food Security (CFS) Gabriel Ferrero, the Vice-Mayor of Milan Anna Scavuzzo and the OECD Policy Analyst Koen Deckonick.