FAO statement at UNGA77 side event - Regional pathways to the Global Goals: ASEAN's approach towards SDGs implementation and sustainable post-COVID-19 recovery

Regional Pathways to the Global Goals: ASEAN’s Approach towards SDGs Implementation
and Sustainable post Covid-19 Recovery”

22 September 2022 

Statement on behalf of FAO, delivered by

Lucas Tavares, Senior Liaison Officer, FAO Liaison Office with the UN in New York 

Introduction

• It is an honor to be here. 
• I want to thank Thailand and ASEAN through its Centre for Sustainable Development Studies and Dialogue (ACSDSD), for co-organizing this meeting. 

Food security and Nutrition

• We are a meeting at a difficult time, when economies are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation is high. This year we are seeing additional pressure on the prices of food, fuel, fertilizers, animal feed and the cost of financing is also up. 
• The ASEAN region is not immune. 
• But it is important to acknowledge that the situation was already critical before. In 2021, up to 828 million people were projected to suffer from undernourishment globally. This includes an additional 150 million people undernourished because of COVID-19. 
• And even before the pandemic, the world was off track to meet the goal of Zero Hunger. In fact, projections indicate that at the current rate we will reach 2030 with levels of hunger similar to that of 2015.

Policy action areas

• Responses to this situation need to address both short and long-term needs.
• In the short term, it is important to protect the vulnerable, including through social protection and preserving jobs and livelihoods.  In addition, many poor and vulnerable food importing countries are facing much higher food import costs. In response to this, FAO proposed the establishment of a Food Import Finance Facility that would potentially benefit 62 countries, including some ASEAN Member States. We are discussing his proposal with the IMF.
• But we should also use this crisis as an opportunity to drive the transformation we need to make our agrifood systems more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable to achieve better nutritional, environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. 
• FAO is proposing complementary actions to do this, tailored to specific needs. In Asia and the Pacific, this translates into regional initiatives endorsed at the FAO Regional Conference hosted by Bangladesh, last March. They include:
  • Strengthening agrifood systems for sustainable production and healthy diets.
  • Accelerating inclusive rural transformation.
  • Promoting sustainable natural resource management for biodiversity conservation and climate actions.

• Last year’s Food Systems Summit gave an important push to this transformation agenda. We should use the momentum it created to accelerate these efforts.
• And I want to emphasize an important tenet that guides FAO’s development work with governments and partners and that is also central to the Food Systems Summit: national ownership. 
• I welcome that the majority of ASEAN countries presented national food systems transformation pathways during the Food Systems Summit process. And ensure that you can count on FAO’s continued support, through our technical expertise and as host of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, always working with the broader UN system and partners always in support of governments.

Regional pathways 

• The regional dimension can give an important contribution to support national efforts and create regional pathways that propose solutions to common challenges. I would like to touch on four areas that are of potential relevance the ASEAN region: trade, family farming, cooperation and innovation.
• Food security and nutrition at the regional and global level needs to be achieved with a mix of local production and international trade, according to the specificities of each country. As the ASEAN region shows, there cannot be one single way forward. .
• It is important to keep trade open and transparent to allow for timely movement of food and avoid panic buying, to give predictability to international food markets and to minimize excessive food price volatility. Preserving open trade in food, agriculture, and energy can reduce price distortions that dilute incentives for efficient production, as the FAO, IMF, World Bank and WFP highlighted in a joint statement released this week.
• With regards to local production, ASEAN Member States have an estimated 100 million smallholder and family farmers producing food in less than 2 hectares of land. Supporting them will help achieve multiple benefits: increase food availability and food security and nutrition, create economic opportunities to lift them from poverty, and advance the sustainable management and resilience of natural resources and ecosystems.
• With regards to cooperation, the ASEAN region includes notable examples of socioeconomic progress and technological development. As ASEAN member states move towards upper middle income country status, this is the occasion to find ways to enhance their cooperation with fellow developing countries, within ASEAN and beyond. 
• This cooperation could cover a wide range of areas, including in the field of technological innovation and the digital revolution, where many ASEAN countries and their private sectors play a leading role.

Thank you for your attention.