Cairo – Egypt - The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) celebrated today the World Food Day 2021 held this year under the slogan “Our actions shape our future… Better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life” as the celebrations this year are emphasizing the importance of seeking to apply agri-food systems and moving faster and with more ambitions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals under the challenges raised by Covid-19 pandemic.

The ceremony was organized under the patronage and in the presence of His Excellency Mr. El Quseir, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Mrs. Elena Panova, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Egypt, Mr. Abdel Hakim El Waer, Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, FAO, Mr. Nasredin Hag El Amin, FAO Representative in Egypt, and Mr. Pravin Agrawal, World Food Program Representative and Country Director, Egypt.

Were also present at the ceremony a large number of leaders and officers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, FAO, representatives of UN organizations, in addition to donor representatives, civil society, academia and media professionals.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr. El Quseir, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, said that “Celebrating the World Food Day seeks to deepen the awareness of the hungry people’s suffering and undernutrition, and to promote measures to be taken in combating hunger and poverty. It also seeks to encourage the rural population’s engagement in decision-making and activities that affect their living conditions; this is the approach adopted by the Government of Egypt in all initiatives and projects, in addition to raising the public awareness and strengthening international solidarity in combating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, and promoting technology transfer to the developing world and fostering interest in agricultural production. Celebrating the World Food Day is also an opportunity to show the international community’s commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to address the main challenges, particularly reducing the climate change implications and addressing hunger and poverty phenomena and advocating the right to food as a human right.

El Quseir said that food and agriculture are the main factors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, therefore everyone is requested to strengthen sustainable agri-food systems worldwide, in order to decrease the number of poor and hungry, and reduce climate change, while preserving our natural resources for the future generations.

He added that the challenges facing the food systems’ sustainability are multiple, cross-cutting, overlapping and of varying intensity from one country to another. However, the confirmed consensus among all countries is that the current status and the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition on one hand, and the diseases caused by obesity and unhealthy consumer patterns on the other hand, require synergies and accelerated working pace to address such conditions in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, through developing plans and strategies capable of developing agricultural types and systems, in addition to improving the food systems to be more inclusive, more resilient, healthier, more sustainable, friendly, accessible and affordable to all, aiming at reducing malnutrition, increasing production, reducing loss and waste and capable of dealing with climate change.

The FAO estimations show that ending hunger by 2030 requires annual investments of around 40 to 50 billion US Dollars, referring to many low-cost and high-impact projects that are likely to help hundreds of millions of people in escaping hunger.

In this regard, Abdel Hakim El Waer, Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, FAO, said: “the FAO promised to carry out a leading role in ensuring successful ambitious and urgent efforts seeking to make agri-food systems more efficient, more inclusive and more resilient and sustainable. This is the main pillar of the World Food Day, in order to work on adopting an integral approach in agri-food system transformation to combat poverty, achieve zero hunger, reduce inequalities and preserve the environment”.

He added: “The challenges and difficulties facing the region require intensification and coordination of efforts to come up with complementary solutions that would take advantage of the technological progress, partnership and cooperation opportunities with development partners and the available mechanisms of finance. Noting that many countries of the region are on the right track in adopting and implementing corrective policies, agricultural and water programs".

It is noted that the World Food Day 2021 is celebrated for the second year under unprecedented circumstances; although it coincides with the seventy sixth anniversary of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it comes at exceptional times where countries around the Globe are addressing the impacts of Covid-19 outbreak.

From her side, Mrs. Elena Panova, UN Resident Coordinator, Egypt, said: “The celebration of the World Food Day reflects the cooperation between the government of Egypt and the UN in Egypt in promoting sustainable agri-food systems in Egypt Food and nutrition is an integral part of our Cooperation Framework where our interventions are fully aligned with the government agenda to achieve food security for the citizens and ensure the right to food to all”, Elena Panova, the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt.

Moreover, pre-Covid-19 estimations show that 51.5 million people or 12% of the population were suffering from hunger in the Arab region - with an increase of 1.1 million people versus pre-2019. If the ratio will continue with the same pace, the number of people affected by hunger will exceed 75 million by 2030; accordingly, the region is not likely to achieve the zero hunger objective of the SDGs. The pandemic impact on the region’s economy will lead to other impacts and challenges that would constrain such objective.

Mr. Nasreddine Hajj El Amin, FAO Representative, Egypt, said:" FAO in Egypt, in collaboration with the Government of Egypt, is striving to design policies and projects that are more compliant with the environment and sustainability, and it is promoting better production, in parallel with boosting more investments in sustainable healthy diets. We also seek to cooperate with the private sector, the civil society, the international organizations and the academia to assist in this. Efforts that seek to mitigate the impact of climate change and the deterioration of the environment and to ensure our wellbeing, depend on this. Accordingly, we must enforce a food action that calls for making an ambitious change".

Hag El Amin added: “There is a set of actions and options that we all need to make in order to facilitate the transformation to sustainable agri-food systems, including:

• Opting for healthy diets;
• Opting for sustainability;
• Reducing food waste; (The FAO latest report shows that the losses incurred annually due to food waste are a trillion and one hundred billion Dollars, split at the rate of four billion Dollars wasted between farms and wholesale market, while consumers and retailers are wasting the equivalent of seventy billion Dollars).  Recycling.. just like nature does;
• Supporting small food producers;
• Adding some green to the scene;
• Let your clothes be sustainable; (i.e. Agri-food systems are not only about producing food, they also produce fibers, like cotton and wool. Envisage sustainability in your clothes. Support socially responsible fashion and trademarks and make research on trademarks before you buy them. Are clothes sustainably produced? Do companies comply with workers’ rights? Does the company pay back to the community? You can also donate your old clothes to charities and buy used clothes to trade off waste.
• Finally, share knowledge and information.

It is noted that after decades of reduction, the number of hungry people is increasing again in the past five years to 118 million people in 2020, as per the latest edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI). More than three billion people are still unable to afford the cost of a healthy diet, while obesity and other non-communicable diseases are an exacerbating issue related to the adoption of inadequately diversified diets. A New report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization indicates that Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated this issue by causing severe relapses in the progress made to date in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

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