FAO and the United Kingdom underscore commitment to help address the root causes of food insecurity and prevent famine

1 October 2020, Rome - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today had a meeting with Nick Dyer and congratulated him for his recent appointment (2 September 2020) as the United Kingdom’s first Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs.

QU and Dyer discussed how the United Kingdom and FAO can further the collaboration to address the challenges of acute food insecurity.

The United Kingdom’s Special Envoy was particularly interested to hear about FAO’s vision and work on the prevention of food crises, including through timely briefings to the UN Security Council, provision of reliable evidence and data for humanitarian programming, as well as on the control of Desert Locust.

From the outset, the Director-General acknowledged the United Kingdom as a long-time supporter of FAO’s work - support that he described as “timely” and “accountable”.

More broadly, the FAO chief recognized the important role the United Kingdom has been playing in supporting the Organization’s emergency response and resilience building, including with regard to prevention, early warning and early action, – and bridging humanitarian and development response through protecting agriculture based livelihoods.

The Director-General underlined the need for a long-term, holistic effort to prevent food crises by addressing their root causes, among them poverty and economic recession while meeting the immediate needs of the rural populations. This would include, for example, the provision of quality seeds to help farmers quickly reestablish and maintain their agricultural production, build their resilience and sustain their income and livelihoods through professional and efficient measures.

QU noted that well established agri-food systems are crucial for durable peace, as it was proven by the great successful Green Revolution, as well as for better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life. The Director-General recalled that agriculture was at the centre of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

The Director-General also observed that robust timely data and analysis are crucial for effective famine prevention and humanitarian response.

This is why FAO has been investing in tools such as the recently launched Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, the Data Lab and Earthmap – the latter an FAO-Google initiative. All these big data initiatives are playing an important role in increasing the predictive and early warning capacity of FAO. Accurate and timely data are key for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System (IPC), and the production of the Global Report on Food Crises, which provide critical, globally recognized analyses of acute food insecurity.

All these initiatives are part of FAO’s long-term vision to build a digital FAO, said QU.

QU and Dyer also discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on the food security of millions of people, and the deteriorating situation in countries like Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen with a view to avert the risk of famine. The Director-General explained that the FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme had been designed to provide comprehensive support to all countries by identifying seven priority areas for action.

For his part, Dyer lauded FAO’s active role during this year’s UN General Assembly in shining more light on today’s humanitarian hot spots and the need for a swift response.

In relation to the Desert Locust situation, QU thanked the United Kingdom for its £22 million contribution to FAO’s survey and control efforts. Thanks to these operations, the loss of over 1.5 million tonnes of cereal has been averted - enough food for nearly 13 million people for an entire year.

The Desert Locust situation has improved in most countries, reported QU. More support was needed, however, he cautioned, to safeguard gains, and in particular, to enhance control and surveillance in Yemen, to build the long-term locust control capacity in at risk countries for generations to come.

The Director-General also urged Dyer to advocate for the United Kingdom’s continued support for FAO’s work so that the UN agency can better help countries grappling with food crises and/or experiencing major setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other shocks.