Director-General’s Transcription Informal Briefing to the Members on Emergency livelihoods interventions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Director-General’s Transcription

Informal Briefing to the Members on Emergency livelihoods interventions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Monday 18 May, 15:30-17:00

Zoom Meeting

Opening Remarks

 

Thank you all for the joining this meeting today. FAO is supporting Members in addressing the multiple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agri-food systems.

Today, I would like to draw your attention to the needs of the most vulnerable people: those requiring urgent humanitarian assistance. The entire world is being hit with the impact of COVID-19. Economies are being strained to their limits. Even in the wealthiest nations, growing numbers of people are asking how they can keep food on their tables. In countries already affected by the food crises, the situation is much worse. If they have not yet experienced the health crisis, they are being hit by the economic impact.

Before the pandemic, 135 million people were already experiencing crisis - or worse - levels of acute food insecurity. Twenty seven million people were already in emergency conditions. This is just one step away from catastrophe or famine.

These figures are stark reminders for the international community to act now or risk devastating collateral impacts on the most vulnerable people. Two new analyses of acute food insecurity – the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC – were just released for Afghanistan and Somalia. These are two countries affected by a mix of conflict, extreme weather, and a high level of vulnerability. They are among the world’s most impacted countries by food crises.

The analyses reflected our worst fears. In Somalia, the number of people facing crisis or worse level of acute food insecurity is expected to triple to 3.5 million compared with early 2020. That is worse than in 2017, when a famine was looming. In Afghanistan, 10.3 million people are projected to face crisis or worse acute food insecurity, from June to November. Yes, there is a slight improvement compared with today, but this is during the harvest season, a time when food security should be relatively better.

To be clear, unless we act fast and at scale, we risk fighting extraordinary levels of acute hunger on multiple fronts. But if we support agricultural livelihoods now, we can help to reduce needs and avoid growing hunger and protect the most vulnerable people from the collateral effects of the pandemic. Acting now is not just more humane and cost-effective, it also protects the very livelihoods on which vulnerable communities are built.

Up to 80 percent of people living in vulnerable contexts rely on some form of agricultural production for their survival. Farmers are impacted by market disruptions in several ways.

Their scale of production would be affected, hence reducing their income and their ability to spend on essential agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizer. Price increases in consumer goods would diminish their ability to afford other essential services such as health and education. In addition, essential livelihood assets, might be sold to meet food needs, ultimately pushing the farmers into destitution including displacement. Pastoralists on the other hand will not be able to purchase feed or veterinary services and products and will be compelled to sell their animals more cheaply. They might be forced to embark on the non-traditional migratory routes thereby risking to trigger conflicts with other communities.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is clear that the world is facing a tremendous challenge. FAO welcomes greater emphasis on non-health related impacts of the pandemic in the revised Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19. That is under the coordination of the Under-Secretary, Mr Mark Lowcock and Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) Ms Amina J. Mohammed.

I would like to recognize the enormous effort made by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in coordinating this plan concretely.

The food security sector is dangerously under-funded. We cannot wait until we finish dealing with the health impact before we turn to food security. Today is the opening day for the World Health Assembly of WHO. I think everyone is focusing on the pandemic issue. We, as a professional Organization for Food and Agriculture, we should ask to draw more attention to food security and crisis management.

Also, WHO are already warning that COVID-19 could be with us forever. So yes, dealing with a health crisis is essential but if we do not start implementing livelihood assistance now, we face multiple food crises. It takes a long time to seize or even reverse the efforts when we deal with Sustainable Development Goal 2, that is a real challenge for us, not only for FAO, but for the global community. And a bill many times greater.

FAO is confident of its continued capacity to deliver and scale up humanitarian assistance, and willing to play a bridging role, as I said to my friend from the International Humanitarian team.

Funds should be received in time. Donors were generous and fast in responding to the desert locust upsurge during the past months. I am very grateful for that and we need this continued generosity and advocacy to prevent a steeper rise in acute hunger.

FAO will always be with you, with Member Countries, with our other sister organizations. We work hard, day and night to offer a tailored service and tangible results to the Member Countries in the most vulnerable regions.

Thank you for your cooperation, thank you for your action, now.

 

Closing Remarks

I am fully engaged in this afternoon meeting – listening.

I want to use this opportunity to first salute all the country offices of FAO and the people that are servicing and working in the field. That is very important. Mr Ramesh Rajasingham, you can see FAO and its staff are still working very hard in the field, because that is what we can offer to deliver UN resources to the people, to the vulnerable people. We are most close to the vulnerable people. That is the FAO value, not only individual employees but also the FAO system and its network; that is a value.

Secondly, I appreciate all the donors, and listening to the Ambassador from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Islamic Republic Iran, France and others, and from the Philippines. We do care about how, in this pandemic period or even post-pandemic, agriculture is long-term investment, but we should have started earlier because we are farmers. Mr Kip Tom and myself are still farmers. I am a small-scale farmer, I still have less than one hectare in my home village, but you have a bigger farm in the United States of America. So, we both work for the farmers and so we are early birds. We should wake up earlier, before the sunrise, we have to go to the field to sow and plant our seeds and rear the cattle. That is why I think that if we did not have innovation, if we did not have new a variety, if we did not have application of new technology, you would have less productivity.

This time, we need solidarity and innovation. Look at the cases in Somalia, Pakistan, Haiti. Listening carefully, and when you face difficult challenges, the only solutions are based on innovation. You can even imagine, you can pay money through WeChat, through the mobile phone to transfer money in Somalia. In that part of the world, a vulnerable part of the world, or South Sudan. You can imagine that innovation and new technology helps us to improve the efficiency and the deliverable service.

Third, also the Headquarters. I appreciate all the contributions from Mr Dominique Burgeon and your team. We can start closer cooperation with other Rome-based Agencies (RBAs), from Headquarters, and more in the Country Office. The FAO Office should have more coordination, more coherence in tune with RBAs. Not only RBAs, but also with other UN sister agencies, the World Bank (WB), and International Financial Institutions.

I think with those three aspects, we can really improve our service to the Member Countries of the most vulnerable peoples.

Thank you, again, for the cooperation from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN System Agencies. Thanks to the support from donor countries and recipient countries. And thanks to the FAO teams – from the field and Headquarters.

Thank you.