FAO Deputy Director-General statement at Meeting of the Group of Friends on Food Security and Nutrition

GROUP OF FRIENDS OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION

1 February 2023 | 11:30am | Conference Room 5

Dear Excellencies, 

Colleagues, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s a pleasure to join you for the first time for the Group of Friends for Food Security and Nutrition meeting, and to join you for your first meeting of the year.

My sincere appreciation to Ambassador Maurizio Massari, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN and Chair of this Group of Friends, for convening this meeting while I’m in New York. 

It’s terrific to be able to address a group that is so aligned with the mission and vision of FAO and other organizations represented here. 

This is an opportunity to update you on the work of FAO in addressing the current global food security and nutrition crisis and to share how FAO, alongside our partners, is working to become more fit to purpose to assist countries. 

We are off track in our global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda and I sincerely hope that this alarms us – we are only 7 seasons away, as now we find ourselves midway to 2030.

The impacts of disasters and crises, which we all know too well, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts including the war in Ukraine, and the climate crisis have not only reversed the progress that we have collectively made, but continue to devastate agrifood systems – meaning, how we produce, how we process, how we distribute and how we consume our food. 

People who rely on food systems are directly impacted and are among the most vulnerable. But to be quite frank, these crises spare no one.

And never has there been a greater need to act together to tackle these global challenges. And I would even go so far as to add that never has there been such a need for the work of an organization like FAO. 

We are stepping up our assistance to countries, our cooperation with our fellow Rome-based Agencies, and others within the UN System, with the multilateral development banks, IFIs and other partners. We are implementing new strategies, we are being mindful of our own internal governance and transparency mechanisms. 

We have created specific units to approach scientific, technological and innovative solutions to addressing agrifood systems, and we continue to also advance our work on SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs, who often find themselves in the most vulnerable positions. Together, we believe that these actions can make a difference, in how we deliver on our work.

Key to our work are our efforts, also, support you, our Members, to transform agrifood systems through our technical expertise on sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries systems, and on other issues related to nutrition, biodiversity loss, climate change, food safety, plant health, animal health, food loss and waste, and so much more. To do this, it takes the work with many partners, many of whom are in this room, including IFAD, WFP, World Bank and, much more recently, with the IMF.

Agrifood systems is a very intentional choice of word, of vocabulary to us – it is one that acknowledges the contribution of agriculture, but importantly also of farming – from field to table. 

Unfortunately, our agrifood systems are fragile and vulnerable at this very moment to all of the world’s shocks and stresses.

It is of critical importance that we work towards building more resilient agrifood systems, and that we invest in them as a transformational accelerator to achieve the SDGs. 

FAO hosts the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub to do just this, to coordinate work of UN agencies, coalitions, international financial institutions, the private sector and other actors to support action for SDG-based food systems transformation. 

This year, in the 2023 Stocktaking Moment, we will collectively review progress and commitments to actions made in implementing the outcomes of the UN Food Systems Summit. 

I am pleased, that the outcomes of the Stocktaking Moment and how they can feed to into the SDG Summit in September 2023 are already being discussed. We are ready to work with you so that the Summit discussions and its Political Declaration reflect the role for more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Agrifood Systems, as one of the key transitions necessary to “rescue” the SDGs.

To accelerate agrifood systems transformation, FAO has two strategies endorsed last year by Members – to guide our work on climate change and also on science, technology and innovation, over the next decade. 

And two years ago, our new Private Sector Engagement Strategy was endorsed, which brings an entirely new roadmap and new approach for FAO’s deeper collaboration and engagement with private sector partners.

These are key tools for better and more timely delivery of our work and they are anchored in the 2030 Agenda. 

We need all hands-on deck if we are to get the world back on track. This includes responding to the complex food security crisis we will continue to face over the course of 2023, and likely into 2024, and it has been fueled by the impacts of these other challenges.

Alongside our partners, we also have a very important role in providing emergency and humanitarian support in times of crisis. This means getting people seeds, fertilizers, livestock vaccines, livestock nutrition supplements, water and other important tools  to farmers and those in rural communities who are suffering in these crisis situations. 

By supporting their livelihoods we can create conditions for rural families to produce food that is essential for their short-term survival, and put in place the building blocks for longer-term resilience. 

It can also reduce overall costs with food assistance. We know that investing in agriculture and rural livelihoods can be 7 to 10 times more cost-effective than traditional, direct food assistance.

We are also working to tackle the root causes of vulnerability and help communities, families, institutions and countries to manage the multiple interconnected risks that they face, to a shift to anticipation and prevention. We are helping farmers anticipate, be prepared and equipped before disaster strikes. 

This complex crisis that we have faced in 2022 will continue to threaten food security this year. 

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, I believe that FAO, and many others here, has been able to act fast and with tangible results. Let me share some examples, before I close.

We have supported the SG’s Global Crisis Response Group that is providing concrete policy options to address this complex time we are in.

In Ukraine, we have played a unique role in supporting storage, help keep grain secure, to make sure Ukrainian farmers have access to seeds and inputs, and ensure that there is food security across the country and beyond.

We have also been quick to provide humanitarian aid to one of the most severe droughts in decades in the Horn of Africa. In addition to anticipatory action, we have scaled up our response as the situation, as we all know, has deteriorated rapidly.

This was made possible due the support of donors and partners. Last year, we reached record-breaking levels in our own resource mobilization efforts, crossing over the 2.1 billion threshold in our voluntary contributions, which represented over 50% year-over-year from the record being set in 2021.

This sharp increase in funding is partly in support of major emergency operations, like Afghanistan, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and also Ukraine. 

But it is also an important sign of the critical need for the agile contributions of an organization like FAO in emergency contexts and I also believe it is a sign of confidence in your ability to see us an organization that can deliver high-quality, large-scale development and resilience programmes.

We will continue into this year with a commitment to long-term solutions, investments in resilience and partnerships with all of you in this very room, for impact.

Thank you very much.