APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
19/08/2021
APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting
Video Message
By
Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
19 August 2021
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were already off-track to meet our commitments to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030.
2. Now, the pandemic has made this significantly more challenging.
3. The State of Food Insecurity in the World report, released in July this year, confirms that as many as 161 million more people were facing hunger in 2020, than in 2019.
4. If we continue along this path, approximately 660 million people may still face hunger in 2030, also due to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on global food security.
5. The role of agri-food systems in achieving the SDGs has never been as important as it is today.
6. The impacts of the global pandemic, increasing scarcity of natural resources, growing conflicts and increased migration, ecosystem degradation and the climate crisis all require our collective and immediate attention.
7. In this regard, I wish to share with you six priorities.
8. FIRST: Growth in the agricultural sector is the most significant sector to effectively reduce poverty and hunger in middle to low income economies.
9. SECOND: It is vital that we collectively address the need for additional investments in agriculture, both in national development strategies, as well as bilateral and multilateral initiatives.
10. Although significant resource mobilization is required to end widespread hunger, the cost is manageable and represents 8 percent of the size of food markets.
11. If we target the economies in most need, and do impactful investments, USD 39 to 50 billion are needed per annum to end hunger by 2030.
12. THIRD: We need to be EFFICIENT: we need to produce MORE, with less resources and less emissions.
13. Innovation is the only way forward.
14. To be able to implement these transformative actions, we need to fully understand the trade-offs with nature and the environment.
15. We have modelling tools available to understand what this transformation will imply.
16. FOURTH: Eradicating chronic hunger is reachable by 2030 with the right balance of interventions.
17. While no single interventions at a realistic scale, could solve the problems alone, the required mix of interventions can reach large-scale impact.
18. These include the need to:
• establish enabling and coherent policies and consumer incentives;
• investing in agri-food systems along the value chain in essential infrastructure like small irrigation for smallholders;
• promote re-purposing of subsidies to research and development and encourage technology and innovation, including biotechnology, digital agri-food systems and green technologies;
• reduce food loss and waste;
• keep international trade open;
• and efficiently protect the most vulnerable population with safety nets and well-targeted interventions, such as school feeding programmes.
19. FIFTH: Complementarities.
20. Packaging interventions brings complementarities and significant savings in costs.
21. SIXTH: Moving from actions to the enabling policies and investments.
22. FAO, with its strong investment centre and global network of investment officers, is committed to support this work.
Dear Colleagues,
23. Transforming agri-food systems requires thinking and acting beyond sectoral boundaries.
24. These systems have many interlinkages with positive synergies, but changes in polices and approaches often require trade-offs to be made.
25. We will also need systematic approaches for building coherent portfolios of policies, investments and legislation that become win-win solutions, including:
• territorial approaches, like FAO’s Hand in Hand initiative;
• ecosystems approaches;
• women’s empowerment approaches;
• Indigenous Peoples’ agri-food systems approaches; and last, but not least,
• interventions that systematically address protracted crisis conditions.
26. As we move from the successful UN Pre Food Systems Summit held in Rome three weeks ago, towards the Summit in New York next month, our attention is focused on the development of coalitions.
27. Coalitions, which will bring together game-changing solutions to address the complex set of agri-food system challenges that need to be overcome to achieve the SDGs.
28. These coalitions will be owned by Members, will be inclusive, with deliverables on the ground.
29. It is critically important that APEC economies commit to these coalitions, and be Champions!
30. FAO and the other Rome-based agencies, IFAD and WFP, are committed to technically lead and support these coalitions, with the contribution of other UN system entities.
31. Many economies in the Asia-Pacific region are amongst the 140 economies globally that have undertaken food systems dialogues to help define national priorities and pathways towards more sustainable agri-food systems.
32. To implement these pathways, economies can draw on the strength of the coalitions.
33. The APEC region has a key role to play in implementing the concrete actions needed to support the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems.
34. FAO stands firmly committed to work in all partnerships for the transformation of our agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life - leaving no one behind!
Thank you.