World Food Forum 2023 Opening of the Science and Innovation Forum Opening Remarks

World Food Forum 2023

Opening of the Science and Innovation Forum

Opening Remarks

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

18 October 2023

  

Excellences, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues and Friends, 

 

It’s a great honor for me to address you today and officially open the FAO Science and Innovation Forum 2023, under the umbrella of the World Food Forum.

 

As we open this important Forum, the world continues to face many challenges, including the impacts of the climate crisis, as well as man-made crises.

 

Agriculture is the cornerstone of numerous economies globally, but continues to absorb 26 percent of the damage and loss brought on by disasters, especially droughts and floods.

 

The communities that produce our food, including farmers, fishers, forest-dependent people and pastoralists, bear the heaviest load as the climate crisis escalates.

 

At the same time, agrifood systems produce a third of global greenhouse gas emissions – further intensifying the climate impacts.

 

Unless we urgently take correct measures, with swift and decisive action, we risk further damage affecting the productivity of agrifood systems.

 

Global agrifood systems need to be urgently transformed to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, for the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life - to ensure that we leave no one behind.

 

Transformed agrifood systems can provide the solutions to food insecurity, to poverty, to the climate crisis and to biodiversity loss.

 

Science and innovation, including innovations arising from traditional and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, are game changers, and we must identify and develop evidence-based solutions.

 

These solutions are at the core of the FAO Strategy on Climate Change, the Strategy on Science and Innovation, and the Strategy for Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors, and their respective Action Plans.

 

Working with Members and partners, FAO is leveraging investment, innovation, science, data and technology for bold climate action through these inter-connected thematic strategies.

 

FAO is innovating to enhance productivity, curb methane emissions, improve value chain efficiency, reduce food loss and waste, and restore ecosystems, among many other important actions.

 

In the last three weeks, we convened two Global Conferences on Sustainable Livestock Transformation and on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization, as well as the Rome Water Dialogue. That shows the commitment and the historical turning point since the past 50 years.

 

We need to do more and better, and faster, together.

 

Through such events, FAO is providing a professional platform for all actors across all regions to highlight available knowledge and ensure equitable access to the latest information and innovation for all.

 

At COP28 later this year, FAO will present a roadmap, a global pathway to achieve SDG2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG13 (Climate Action), with a package of agricultural solutions to contribute to the climate, biodiversity, and food security agendas.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Science, technology and innovation can be a powerful engine to end hunger and malnutrition, as well as boost climate action, but knowledge alone does not drive change.

 

Transformative governance and strengthening the science-policy-society interface is critical.

 

We must also take into account that countries have diverse challenges, needs and capacities related to infrastructure, levels of education and technical capacities, among others.

 

Global cooperation is key to make appropriate and context-specific technologies and innovations available, accessible and affordable to those who need it the most.

 

For this, we need to increase the quantity and quality of climate finance backing agrifood systems transformation – this was also an important initiative launched by the Egyptian Presidency of COP27.

 

The UN SDG Summit held last month in New York was a crucial moment to assess progress and challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda.

 

Unfortunately, we all know that progress on many of the food and agriculture-related targets has stagnated or even reversed, and data gaps persist.

 

But we must not lose hope. As I said yesterday, there is a difference between “heart-broken” and “heart-felt” – we must work with heart-felt ambition in pursuit of our collective vision of a world with zero hunger and malnutrition, and with sustainable and resilient agrifood systems.

 

Harnessing science, technology and innovation is at the core of our vision.

 

And at the heart of the Science and Innovation Forum: to explore the applications of innovative science and technologies in transforming agrifood systems.

 

I look forward to your evidence-based debates. I encourage you to share your science-based experiences and lessons learned, and to come up with science- and evidence-based solutions for concrete actions going forward.

 

Science and Innovation will provide the tangible results needed on the ground for people, planet and prosperity.

 

Science should be beneficial to all and technology should bring the change where we need it most on the ground.

 

Thank you.