LARC38 Special Ministerial Meeting for SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs Welcome Remarks

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon, 

Before I start with my formal statement I wish to first and foremost confirm my strong support for my friend and Ambassador from Mexico, together with others. We are going to lead the initiatives on how to support our brothers and sisters from Haiti.

Even before, during the past four years, I have had several meetings and discussions with several leaders from Haiti, as well as with Ministers of Agriculture in Rome, in Buenos Aires, in New York, and in other locations.

At FAO, we are doing everything we can, but now we need to work together to provide support in the immediate short-term.

First, we need to work together with other UN agencies in Rome and New York, especially with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), for a strong and agile immediate response.

Second, for the mid-term, we need a specific design on how to transform agrifood systems in Haiti; how to empower and support the young farmers to access the latest technology, new varieties, and new agricultural inputs.

I already had discussions with President Lula on how to support Haiti through this subregion, and now I also had a discussion with President Ali yesterday on how to use Guyana as one of the rebound stations to support them.

FAO is ready to stand with you, and both the Chief Economist and the Director of the Office of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs, are from your region and are well placed to provide the support needed.

Personally, my first trip abroad in 1986 was to this region and I came to Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Chile. So, I have always had a close feeling with this region.

I am pleased that most of the Members of this region have already graduated from the Least Developed Countries category and most of you are now middle-income countries.

If we collaborate coherently, we can have more deliverable results, and help Haiti. But we need to work together.

Now I will proceed with the official statement for this event.

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to welcome you to this High-level Special Event on Agrifood systems transformation in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Latin America and the Caribbean, and especially the CARICOM.

Bringing increased visibility to the sustainable development of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs has always been central to my agenda, even before I came to FAO.

Since 2002, when I was appointed Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), I spent about 20 years working with Small Island Developing States (SIDS) because of my background with cash crops and horticulture, among others.

The rich natural resources of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs ranging from the abundance of oceans, rivers, lands, mountains, forests, and biodiversity provide many opportunities.

Of course, we have a lot of challenges. I always seek the opportunities when you face challenges.

But these countries also have many specific challenges due to remoteness, frequent natural hazards and diseases, and vulnerability to the impacts of the climate crisis, among others, which have not always allowed them to transform their agrifood systems to their full potential to provide the prosperity needed.

We should understand the issues and then how to offer a solution.

Recently we have also seen the vulnerability of the Caribbean SIDS to other external shocks. The cascading impacts of COVID-19, economic downturns and increase in global food prices, have led to unprecedented levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.

As President Ali rightly pointed out yesterday, you need a certain level of self-supply, of self-sufficiency of food. Of course, we live in an interconnected world, and you also must depend on trade. But, if you raise your level of self-sufficiency, it gives you the freedom to address the issues with more agility.

To strengthen support to Members in addressing these vulnerabilities and in unlocking opportunities and partnerships, I established the FAO Office of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs upon taking office in 2019, to support unlocking opportunities and partnerships to address the needs of this important block of FAO Members.

In total more than 50 Members globally and from the small islands, including some middle-, high-income island states.

Through the flagship FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative, launched in September 2019, FAO introduced an innovative approach to working smarter, together, at the scale required, for measurable impact to address the multifaceted challenges countries face,

Including increasing food insecurity and malnutrition, rising inequality, vulnerability to the climate change, soil degradation and depletion of freshwater resources.

Even here, this morning I visited the rice station There is too much underground water. The level of underground water is too high. How can you make a proper land use design?

It is a challenge because too much water sometimes also creates problems. Not only in the Netherlands for example, or even in my hometown Hunan of China we face too much water. 2000 ml of rainfall in one year and sometimes we have one month of drought. Hence, how to have a consistent supply of water and reduce the damage or negative impact is also a challenge.

You need investment, and you need a proper design on how to make your land more fertile and more sustainable.

The Hand-in-Hand Initiative operates on the principle of targeted, evidence-based interventions that prioritize areas and populations with the highest levels of poverty, food insecurity, inequality, and vulnerability.

It emphasizes data-driven decision-making and aims to mobilize resources, partnerships, and innovative approaches to overcome challenges and achieve impactful results.

The number of Caribbean countries engaged in steadily increasing.

In June last year, I convened a High-Level Ministerial Event “Transforming Agrifood Systems to Increase Resilience and Achieve the 2030 Agenda: Harnessing the potential of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs”.

The event led to a Call for Action by Ministers and high-level representatives and the proposed establishment of a Ministerial network for SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs, with technical support from FAO,

Therefore, I strongly encourage this network to make it even more fit-for-purpose in the lead up to the SIDS Summit this year in Trinidad and Tobago. As well as the Third UN conference on LDCs in Rwanda in June this year.

The network is a mechanism to share experiences and collectively build resilience to the climate crisis, food insecurity, and to secure investments to scale-up transformation of agrifood systems.

In addition, in 2021, I set up the SIDS Solutions Platform, with the first Forum co-hosted virtually by FAO and Fiji in 2021, with participation of several Caribbean SIDS.

Therefore, the Asia and the Pacific SIDS have now more action plans to support solutions, especially digital solutions, for SIDS in the Pacific islands.

I strongly encourage the FAO Regional Representative, Mr Mario Lubetkin, to focus on this issue.

Most of the SIDS are in this region, and in the Asia-Pacific Region, with a few also in Africa, so the two big regions must work together and learn from each other.

The SIDS Solutions Platform facilitates knowledge sharing within SIDS and between SIDS, LDCs, LLDCs and other countries to catalyze and inject innovations, increased investments, and building resilience in agrifood systems.

This High-level event is an important opportunity for exploring how FAO can facilitate increased South-South and Triangular Cooperation to accelerate agrifood transformation in the Caribbean SIDS.

FAO’s resource mobilization has increased exponentially across the Caribbean SIDS over the last 2 biennia and FAO will continue to pursue partnership with traditional and non-traditional donors to continue to fuel the needed transformation.

Through innovation, science, technology, capacity development and partnerships, FAO’s programmes will foster the ability of farmers to be active agents of change for the agriculture sector and their communities.

Dear Colleagues,

These activities are only a few examples of our collective successes in advancing the development agenda of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs.

These efforts have been recognized by our Members and I wish to express my appreciation to all our partners who are working hand-in-hand with FAO to improve the livelihoods of all people in SIDS, LDCs, and LLDCs through the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life – leaving no one behind.

I think in SIDS we have had a good start, but we have to continue – we need to patiently and passionately wait for the turning point to change: we need to reach the right level of change to be able to address climate change and vulnerability in the SIDS. We also need to match the right level of GDP with the Human Development Index developed by UNDP.

At FAO we will play our part and work together with you to reach and improve the Human Development Index in the SIDS.

Let us work together!

Thank you.