Meeting with the EU Ambassadors “Global food security, opportunities, challenges and role of FAO and EU priorities” Statement
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
25/07/2022
Meeting with the EU Ambassadors
“Global food security, opportunities, challenges and role of FAO and EU priorities”
Statement
By
Dr QU Dongyu
25 July 2022
Rome, Italy
Dear colleagues,
1. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report informs that up to 828 million people faced hunger in 2021 – 46 million people more in 2021 and a total of 150 million more people since 2019, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. The pandemic widened existing inequalities and increased the challenge of eradicating hunger.
3. Updated projections indicate that more than 670 million people may still be hungry in 2030 – far from the Zero Hunger target!
4. Acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 20 countries or areas, including two regional clusters – the hunger hotspots.
5. We must work together to prevent the acceleration of acute food insecurity trends in the coming months, and beyond.
6. Thanks to the ongoing support of the European Union in many areas, like for example the Global Network, the IPC, and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, we can better monitor and predict hunger hotspots, and target timely interventions.
7. The war in Ukraine, together with other ongoing conflicts in a number of countries across the world, as well as the impacts of the climate crisis, compound the already complex global situation.
8. We need to urgently transform our agrifood systems to increase their resilience, decrease their vulnerabilities and accelerate the process to achieve the SDGs.
9. For this transformation, we need to focus on 4 main areas, which are also directly linked to EU priorities:
10. First, we must invest in countries most in need that are severely affected by the increase in food prices and vulnerabilities.
11. To boost availability, we must focus more attention on producing nutritious food locally; currently only 8% of all food security funding in emergencies goes to assist agricultural production.
12. Second, we must put policies in place that both increase productivity and protect natural resources.
13. Transforming agrifood systems to deliver healthy, nutritious diets, and deliver equitable outcomes requires significant financial investment, estimated at 8% of the size of the agrifood market.
14. Investment should be in both hard infrastructure such as roads, irrigation, electricity and digitalization, as well as in value chain infrastructure such as storage and cooling facilities, and banking and insurance infrastructure.
15. You need to invest more in innovation and new technologies and in more transparent market information systems.
16. Market transparency and coordination is crucial in times of uncertainty as it helps stabilize markets and prices.
17. FAO remains committed to enhancing global market transparency through the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which is an essential tool to foster confidence in global markets.
18. Third, we need to ensure better and more efficient use of available outputs and inputs – we must produce more and better, with less inputs.
19. Let me provide 3 examples:
• We need to use up-to-date technologies to optimize for example the efficient use of water in agriculture;
• We must reduce food loss and waste, which could feed around 1.26 billion people per year and which has a negative impact on the environment; and
• We need to use technology to improve efficient fertilizer use.
20. A cross-cutting key accelerator is science and innovation.
21. We need to link all science-based solutions with the key multilateral processes, such as COP27, to accelerate transformation.
22. The recently endorsed Science and Innovation Strategy will help us achieve new levels of productivity, quality, diversity, efficiency, and environmental sustainability in agrifood systems.
23. And the Strategy on Climate Change will guide FAO in providing strengthened support to Members in their ambitions to address climate challenges in agrifood systems, and implementation of the Paris Agreement.
24. We must implement these 2 thematic strategies in synergy, and we need to increase our efforts in mobilizing the required knowledge, partnerships and funding for their successful implementation.
25. Science and innovation are critical to finding solutions to the climate challenges we are facing today.
Dear Colleagues,
26. At the UN Security Council meeting in May this year, I stressed that agriculture is one of the keys to lasting stability and security.
27. Together with the other RBA Principals we briefed the Security Council on conflict and food security, and we reaffirmed with one voice the crucial role of the RBAs in reversing rising levels of acute hunger.
28. FAO has also developed 8 policy proposals for the Global Crisis Response Group to address the global food security situation and the risks associated with the current conflicts.
29. The war in Ukraine has reduced available export supplies of food, feed, fertilizers and fuel, leading to further increased food prices and putting at risk the 2023 harvest.
30. The Black Sea Grain Agreement signed on Friday will facilitate global access to Ukrainian food, as well as Russian food and fertilizers, and is an important step forward in tackling the global food crisis.
31. To help the most affected countries deal with the rising import costs, FAO has proposed the establishment of a global Food Import Financing Facility, to assist in financing food purchases.
32. With your support, it could be implemented by the leading financial agencies under their balance of payments financial mechanism.
33. FAO remains fully committed to the Global Network Against Food Crises to jointly identify solutions across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
34. It is an important platform for the international community to coordinate collective and coherent actions to prevent food crises, mitigate their impacts, and contribute to the transformation of agrifood systems.
35. Agrifood systems transformation can only be tangible if it is inclusive.
36. Vice President Timmermans recently underlined the importance of making the European Green Deal a just and social deal.
37. We can only move forward by sharing the decision-making table with all stakeholders.
38. Evidence across all continents shows that women are more food insecure than men, and this has worsened due to the pandemic.
39. We need to ensure that women small-scale food producers, youth and rural farmers are included in the transformation.
40. We need to continue working together, because only by working closely together can we achieve important objectives, and there are some important examples of our collective accomplishments.
41. We successfully controlled the Desert Locust upsurge, protecting livelihoods in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and beyond,
42. And we have strengthened global efforts to control Fall Armyworm through a strong and coordinated response.
43. Through the One Health approach, and the new Quadri-partite Collaboration for One Health, we are further strengthening cooperation for the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment.
44. The Food Systems Coordination Hub has been set up and is operational, drawing on wider UN system capacities to support Members with the implementation of their national pathways.
45. FAO is committed to working together to support the Global Alliance for Food Security to monitor the drivers and the impact of higher prices and help ensure that investment, financing, data, and best-practice knowledge are available to countries in need.
Dear Friends,
46. Collaboration is key to addressing the daunting challenges that lie ahead.
47. I look forward to continue working together with the European Union through our strong, efficient, effective and coherent partnership to transform our agrifood systems.
48. Thank you.