High-Level Panel: Unifying Global Voices: Making Food Security a Priority in 2024 Statement

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I wish to thank the Global Citizen and the Permanent Delegation of Brazil, and all partners, for organizing this timely event.

FAO estimates that around 735 million people in the world faced chronic hunger in 2022 - 122 million more than before the pandemic.

Conflicts and wars, climate extremes, and economic crises affect all of us.

But they have a disproportionate negative effect on food security and nutrition for the poor and the vulnerable.

Poverty and hunger are linked.

And inequality not only increases the likelihood of hunger but is also linked to obesity and micro-nutrient deficiency, contributing to the triple burden of malnutrition.

Poverty and inequality can magnify the impacts of shocks.

We should expand social protection programmes and scale-up conditional cash transfers.

And Brazil presents a successful example of this.

But we should also keep innovating in social protection, especially linking it to climate shocks.

We also need to build resilience so that vulnerable communities can prevent and cope with crisis and shocks, particularly women, the youth, the elderly and indigenous peoples.

In the longer term, we need to create opportunities for the poor to increase their incomes and improve their livelihoods.

Reducing poverty and inequality needs investments in infrastructure, digitalization, innovation, and technologies and, more importantly, in human capital through better education and health services.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Significantly increased and more targeted investment to transform global agrifood systems will be necessary to reduce hunger, bring people out of poverty and promote sustainable agricultural production.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2023 Report projected that almost 600 million people would be chronically hungry by 2030.

Transforming agrifood systems will cost USD 4 trillion from now to 2030 in Low- and Middle-Income countries - or USD 680 billion per year.

This amount is a mix of investments related expenditure, USD 425 billion in average per year and USD 255 billion in social safety nets.

That is why we need to Increase investments for a more diverse and productive agriculture sector, promoting nutritious foods - nutritious foods are often the most impacted by disruptors such as climate shocks and logistics interruptions.

For this reason, we should help to generate economic growth, protect the environment, and promote social equity and health.

We must address all dimensions of sustainable development,

And agriculture with its linkages to rural economies, the environment and nutrition has an important role to play.

Investing in knowledge generation and innovative solutions through agricultural Research & Development and extension services are key.

Technology and innovation are key drivers of productivity growth and indispensable in the transition to a more sustainable pathway.

Re-allocating agricultural support towards the production of nutritious foods is essential as it can increase availability and reduce the cost of nutritious foods, thereby improving access to healthy diets.

Re-purposing agricultural support can also provide strong incentives to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and increase access to healthy diets.

Dear Colleagues,

We need to understand the agrifood systems provide us with food – our Right to Food – but they also contribute to the climate crisis and are responsible for about 30 percent of GHG emissions.

But by transforming them we can improve their efficiency, make them more inclusive, increase their resilience, and make them more sustainable to reduce these externalities.

To achieve this objective, we need an innovative plan and a concrete package of solutions to support of achieving Zero Hunger and accelerating climate actions.

That is why at COP28, FAO launched a Global Roadmap for Achieving SDG2 without breaching the 1.5C threshold.

This Global Roadmap aims to make the case that accelerated climate actions can transform agrifood systems and help to achieve good food for all - for today and tomorrow.

And the Roadmap could also act as a catalyst for increased financing.

FAO is pleased of the fruitful synergy and effective collaboration with the Government of Brazil, and we continue to be committed to providing our full technical and professional support for a successful G20 under Brazil’s Presidency.