FAO statement to Groups of Friends on Governance for Sustainable Development – FAO Director of Land and Water Division

To achieve the SDGs, we must look at the issue of water. Water is central to agriculture and the entire sustainable development agenda, due to its manifold interlinkages. 

Agriculture is the largest sectoral water user, accounting for an average 72% of freshwater withdrawals worldwide. We must also note that 40% of food production is from irrigated agriculture on 20% of arable land. 

To be able to produce enough food for the future population, and to eliminate hunger and poverty, we will need to manage the finite water resources more efficiently. 

Sustainable agriculture depends on integrated water resources management and innovative solutions, addressing climate change risks and poor water governance.

There is a need for more effective and consistent actions, coupled with strong political will, in recognizing, valuing and managing water in a holistic and integrated manner to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An important outcome of the Food Systems Summit has been the Food System Transformation Pathways, submitted by 116 countries. They set out the country’s objectives in achieving the SDGs and in particular SDG 2. Indeed, despite hopes that the world would emerge more quickly from the crisis and food security would begin to recover from the pandemic, world hunger rose further in 2021. In 2021, an estimated 29.3 percent of the global population – 2.3 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure, and 11.7 percent (923.7 million people) faced severe food insecurity. 

However, the pace of implementation of these pathways must be increased if we want to achieve the SDGs by 2030. As an analysis by the Land and Water Division of FAO has shown, only around 40% of these pathways mention water as a main driver for food systems transformation, including the proposal of adequate measures. 

Therefore, FAO proposed the idea of developing National Water Roadmaps to the SDGs through national water dialogue processes.

The development of a National Water Roadmap through a participatory process would ensure the coordination between different ministries and stakeholder groups, in order to achieve the synergies and co-benefits of water across social, economic and environmental objectives. 

This proposal was shared at the 9th World Water Forum, and it was adopted by UN-Water and by the Dushanbe Declaration. It received unanimous support by FAO Member countries at the 171^st Council Session in the end of 2022.

This is only one of several initiatives that aim to foster and speed up the implementation of the SDGs by 2030.  Through sharing these initiatives at the UN 2023 Water Conference, international cooperation and voluntary commitments can be enhanced to get back on track on the implementation of the Agenda 2030. 

In summary, the UN 2023 Water Conference can actively contribute to the Food Systems Stocktaking by, among other things:

Sharing knowledge about the crucial role of water in achieving SDG 2 no hunger, as well as all SDGs and seizing the momentum to bring water at the top of the political agenda and as a real game changer in the climate change debate;

Fostering existing and building new coalitions and multi-organization initiatives for collaborative and coherent action on the SDGs;

Establishing or strengthening multi-stakeholder processes and dialogues, such as the initiative to support Members to conduct national water dialogues and develop their national water roadmaps towards the Sustainable Development Goals

FAO is committed to bring these value-added, water-related initiatives forward through the UN 2023 Water Conference and beyond. FAO is furthermore co-leading the Interactive Dialogue on Water for Sustainable Development of the Conference, through which the crucial importance of water for the implementation of the Agenda 2030 will be highlighted.

The results of this Dialogue as well as the outcomes and next steps after the UN 2023 Water Conference will also be fed into the preparations of the FSST.