World Union of Wholesale Markets International Conference High Level Plenary: Healthy diets for the planet: challenges and pathways to ensure sustainable food
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
25/06/2021
World Union of Wholesale Markets International Conference
High Level Plenary: Healthy diets for the planet: challenges and pathways to ensure sustainable food systems
Speech by
Dr. QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
As prepared
25 June 2021
Distinguish Speakers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of food security and nutrition and is undermining our efforts to meet the SDGs, in particular the targets of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.
2. This wake-up call is also an opportunity for us to re-evaluate how we tackle the root causes of our predicament and how to “build-back” or even “build-forward” better.
3. It is important to take stock of the problematic global food security and nutrition situation,
4. to understand the drivers behind the trends and inequalities of accessing nutritious food and healthy diets that lie at the heart of the problem.
5. The pandemic has made it imperative that we understand the interconnected nature of these drivers, and the shortcomings of our agri-food systems.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
6. In the second half of the last decade, tens of millions of people joined the ranks of the undernourished.
7. In 2019, additional 10 million people went hungry and nearly 60 million more in the last five years.
8. Conflict, climate events and economic downturns are major drivers behind these worrisome trends.
9. And the pandemic has made the situation worse.
10. Last year, when the full impact of the pandemic on food security was still unfolding, FAO estimated that up to 132 million more people could be pushed into hunger by the end of 2020.
11. The next The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report will be launched on 12 July in a High Level Political Forum Special Event.
12. The report will provide updated estimates that confirm that food security and nutrition have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
13. Around 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.
14. This is an unacceptable inequality in a world that produces enough food to feed everybody.
15. The wholesale markets play a crucial role in this.
16. Costly and unaffordable healthy diets are associated with increasing food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, including stunting, wasting, overweight and obesity.
17. Our current diets are generally not healthy and we have evidence that our unhealthy dietary choices are not protecting us against non-communicable diseases.
18. Healthy diets are calculated to cost 5 times more than a calorie sufficient diet and 60% more than a nutrient sufficient diet.
19. The economic recession is making food access more difficult, which is deteriorating households’ diets.
20. Improving the access to healthy diets includes looking at food production, food supply chains, food environments and consumer demand.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
21. The complexity and interrelationships of drivers and solutions touch upon every aspect of our agri-food systems.
22. This is why we need to transform these systems.
23. Knowledge is not our key problem: in most cases we do know where to intervene and we can identify more entry points.
24. Stakeholders are broadly aware of needed policies and investments.
25. But harvesting low hanging fruits is not enough.
26. We have to find ways to address trade-offs associated with reaching all dimensions of sustainability: economic, social and environmental.
27. We need to look for win-win solutions, for people and the planet,
28. Solutions that also reduce the high levels of food loss and waste.
29. Beyond financial savings, this will help us eliminate world hunger and all forms of malnutrition, as well as contribute to the mitigation of climate change.
30. Win-win solutions demand transforming our agri-food systems with actions across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
31. And we need to identify key entry points at sub-national levels for promoting sustainable agri-food systems transformation.
32. For example, we must not miss the catalytic role that cities and local governments can play in accelerating this transformation.
33. Here again the wholesale markets play a crucial role as the major source of food for cities.
34. Cities and local governments have been fundamental in reducing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and food security and nutrition of their citizens, and are a key enabler to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
35. We need to improve the awareness, knowledge, capacities and implementation strategies of relevant stakeholders on food safety and healthy diets.
36. The integration of urban and territorial food governance into overall agri-food systems transformation is crucial as well.
37. More partnership initiatives are also needed to enable effective collective action and mobilize the means of implementation to transform agri-food systems.
38. Those partnerships should be horizontal but also vertical to capture sub-national aspects.
39. The private sector has a critical role to play in helping to achieve the SDGs, both through its considerable capacity to invest and its innovative business approaches.
40. FAO has engaged with various partners to develop instruments that can help the private sector contribute to the development of more sustainable, efficient and inclusive agri-food value chains.
41. These include the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS RAI), and the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains.
42. The recently adopted modern FAO Strategy for Private Sector Engagement enables us to enhance our strategic partnerships, scale up and steer all our efforts to jointly achieve the SDGs.
43. We are delighted to be in partnership with the World Union of Wholesale Markets and other key agencies and stakeholders.
44. Together, we support cities to engage in the global and national agri-food systems transformation, especially – but not exclusively – in global fora such as the Food Systems Summit.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
45. Wholesales food markets are the key stone of our agri-food systems.
46. But despite delivering nutritious and diversified food to local populations, many wholesale food markets suffer from infrastructural and institutional issues.
47. This affects product quality, prices, profits and overall efficiency.
48. There is a need for national and local governments to integrate these markets into food system planning.
49. There is also potential for wholesale markets to be more efficient and more inclusive to local small-scale farmers producing nutritious food.
50. Given their importance, FAO published a policy brief on “Measures for supporting wholesale food markets during COVID-19“.
51. And FAO’s Investment Centre is developing guidelines for wholesale food market modernization with the support of the World Union of Wholesale Markets.
52. The pandemic shed the light on the need for significant investment to upgrade essential food market infrastructure to strengthen the resilience of agri-food systems.
53. Just last week, FAO’s Ministerial Conference adopted our new Strategic Framework for the next decade.
54. With it, we seek to seek to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.
55. We welcome collaboration with the private sector, the whole sale markets, and other key players through multi-stakeholder partnerships to pursue this aspiration.
56. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get it done!
57. Thank you!