2019 ECOSOC Management Segment

Joint statement by FAO, IFAD, WFP and WHO
Carla Mucavi, Director, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

 

I am pleased to deliver this statement on behalf of FAO, IFAD, WFP and WHO.  We thank the Chair of the CFS and the Coordinator of UNSCN for their reports.

Through their work, CFS and UNSCN give substantial contributions to food security and nutrition, the 2030 Agenda, the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and the recently launched UN Decade on Family Farming.

We welcome and are supporting the ongoing work of the CFS to develop Voluntary Guidelines for Food Systems and Nutrition. We also want to emphasize the inherent value of multi-stakeholder dialogues that takes place within the CFS.

As members of the UNSCN, we reaffirm our commitment to its strategic objectives of policy coherence, accountable delivery, exploration emerging issues and knowledge sharing within and beyond the UN System.

As we just heard from UNSCN and CFS, we are not on track to reach SDG2. We are seeing an increase in the number of people affected by hunger and other forms of malnutrition, including obesity and anaemia in women of reproductive age. To revert this trend, we need to shift course, take bolder, transformative and better integrated actions.

From the agriculture, food security and nutrition viewpoint, this means adopting sustainable food systems that promote healthier diets, tackle environmental degradation and biodiversity loss and empower family farmers and rural people, allowing them to give their essential contribution to sustainable development.

As noted in the recent presentation of the Global Sustainable Development Report, investing in food and nutrition goes far beyond SDG2. It is a pathway to the transformation needed to achieve the full 2030 Agenda.

Finally, we would like to call your attention to the forthcoming launch of the State of Food Insecurity in the World report on 15 July here in New York which will present the latest estimates for food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition at global and regional levels.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with the CFS, UNSCN and all stakeholders in support of Member States and their efforts to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition and promote sustainable development.

Thank you for your attention.