2023 UNSDG PRINCIPALS MEETING Agenda Item 2: Positioning the UNSDG to support SDG acceleration through key transitions Intervention on Agrifood Systems

2023 UNSDG PRINCIPALS MEETING

Agenda Item 2: Positioning the UNSDG to support SDG acceleration through key transitions

Intervention on Agrifood Systems 

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General 

3 May 2023

 

Dear Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohamed,

Dear Colleagues,

 

Thank you! DSG Amina for giving me this opportunity to speak on one of the key transitions for SDG acceleration – agrifood systems transformation.

 

I want to reaffirm FAO’s full commitment for the forward-looking strategic direction and oversight that UNSDG provides.

 

You are all aware of the magnitude and dimensions of the global challenges we face that are affecting global food security, especially in the poorest countries and among vulnerable populations. In 2021, there were as many as 828 million hungry people - an increase of 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The distribution of hunger was more extreme and unbalanced within and across boundaries in 2022.

 

And the trends continue to point to more people in the coming years becoming food insecure and with little hope of having access to a healthy or nutritious diet. This is especially true in the poorest countries – SIDS, LDCs, and LLDCs – and among the most vulnerable populations.

 

Agrifood systems must become more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable if we are to address the numerous interconnected crises facing the world today. 

 

While our current agrifood systems contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and consume large amounts of fresh water, there is reason to be optimistic that we can transform them – both in the short and long term. 

 

Which are the key enablers and bottlenecks for agrifood systems transformation?

 

To get out of extreme poverty and vulnerability, and to eradicate hunger, requires that we transform these systems to create the conditions for economic investment, for the expansion of trade and the grown of services and other market segments. 

 

To support agrifood systems transformation we must:

 

First: gather science-based data and evidence and harness the potential of science, innovation and technology, including emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Big Data.

 

Second: ensure enhanced coordination of policies and institutional frameworks to provide holistic solutions at all levels.

 

Third: create awareness and build human capacities. Public sector decision-makers should be aware of agrifood systems challenges, and have the capacity to support national cross-sectoral efforts to address them. And all agrifood systems actors, from small-scale producers and processors to larger agri-businesses, should have the required capacities to participate in sustainable agrifood systems.

 

Fourth: take action to enhance the contributions of women to agrifood system transformation. FAO just released a new comprehensive Report on the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems which confirms that we must: increase women’s empowerment; implement gender-transformative approaches to change restrictive social norms at scale; enhance women’s access to land, innovation, and finance; and improve access of mothers to formal childcare and to extension services.

 

Five: mobilize public, private and blended finance for the investments needed for the transformation.

 

And Six: This transformation needs to be owned by countries and implemented in partnership with UN entities and different stakeholders, including the public sector, private sector, civil society, academia and research institutions, and development partners.

 

There are also potential bottlenecks to agrifood systems transformation, which have to be addressed, including deficits in governance, in institutional capacities, in financing and in infrastructure that hamper progress in the world. Furthermore, mega structural drivers – such as digitalization, urbanization and carbon neutralization – are also pushing agrifood systems towards great challenges and huge opportunities.

 

The question is: How can the UN development system support agrifood systems transformation? And how can FAO support the UN development system in doing that?

 

FAO is effectively using its unique role as a UN Specialized Agency to inform and influence a global response that can seize the many opportunities for the needed transformation.

 

As the host of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, FAO is home to the platform for all Agencies, Funds and Programmes of the UN System to streamline their support to countries on accelerating the SDGs through agrifood systems transformation with strong leadership under the DSG. So far, 117 countries have developed national food system transformation pathways as a result of the 2021 Food Systems Summit. Some have begun implementing their pathways, while others require additional technical and financial assistance to advance.

 

The 2023 UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment will be held at FAO Headquarters from 24 to 26 July. It will be coordinated with the SG and DSG, and is hosted by the Government of Italy in collaboration with the Rome-based UN Agencies (FAO, IFAD, and WFP), and the wider UN system.  Now, there is so much political commitment to mobilize as amply demonstrated by the large number of Heads of State/Government planning to participate in the Stocktaking Moment. DSG, please send a clear message or invitation to them as soon as possible.

 

We have to build on the momentum of the 2021 Food Systems Summit and create a conducive space for countries to review commitments to action, share success stories, and early signs of transformation.

 

In this regard, the support of Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams in preparation for the Stocktaking Moment is key.

 

And finally, what is needed at the country level to advance agrifood systems transformation?

 

At country level, it is essential to have:

• One: harmonized and integrated policy and regulatory frameworks by strong political commitments.
• Two: enhanced multi-stakeholder dialogue and SDG accelerators; and
• Three: strengthened human and institutional capacities of public and private stakeholders.

 

That is why FAO has established the World Food Forum (WFF) to be held in Mid-October (to coincide with FAO’s birthday on 16 October) since 2021, to put agrifood systems transformation on the international platform by empowering youth and women, science and innovation, and to attract investment in rural areas which face numerous challenges.

 

I look forward to our exchanges today in order to identify interlinkages between the six transitions through integrated approaches – that is, the food-energy-climate holistic methodology by refocusing on the Sustainable Development Goals for food security and health security, for peace and prosperity, to further improve UN joint programming capacity, institutional partnerships and delivery at country level to accelerate the SDGs.

 

Thank you.