Joint RBA statement at the UNGA Second Committee - Agenda items (22) Eradication of poverty and (24) Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition

77th Session of the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)

Joint discussion of Agenda items: 

(22) Eradication of poverty and (24) Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition

Joint Statement by:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP)

Chairperson, Excellencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Thank you for giving me the floor. I’m speaking today on behalf of FAO, IFAD and WFP.

The impacts of COVID-19, climate change and conflict have resulted in a set of complex and overlapping crises relating to food, energy and finance. The war in Ukraine continues to exacerbate these issues accompanied by high and volatile energy, food and fertilizer prices, restrictive trade policies, and supply chain disruptions.

The UN Secretary-General’s Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) reported that 94 countries - home to around 1.6 billion people - are significantly exposed to at least one dimension of the ongoing multiple crises and unable to cope. 40 of these countries are in debt distress. This places a tremendous strain on government’s ability to help households meet basic needs as they themselves face higher costs. 

We also know that the 2022 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report states that between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. This number has grown by about 150 million just since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. These worrying trends show how the world is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger. 

Colleagues,

FAO, IFAD and WFP are committed to further strengthen our efforts for a world with Zero Hunger. There is still an opportunity to reset and make substantial progress towards realizing the SDGs. As recognized through the process leading to the UN Food Systems Summit just one year ago, achieving the SDGs requires investment in transitioning or food systems to become more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

The situation could not be more urgent. 

First, we must take urgent action to scale up humanitarian support and expand social protection measures to address acute food insecurity and to prevent famine. 

According to the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2022 Mid-Year Update released last month, the number of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) has increased by up to 29.5 million people between 2021 and 2022 in the 53 countries included in their analysis. This clearly suggests that needs continue to surpass current support and capacities and that we must invest more in our humanitarian response and in urgent social protection measures.

To be most effective, we should ensure that humanitarian funding is flexible, unearmarked, aligned to the needs across essential sectors, and at the right time to allow to pre-position and align to time-sensitive seasonal needs

Second, we must invest in longer term solutions to avoid going from one food crisis to another. 

Building resilience for the future will require a continued comprehensive and coordinated effort to support efficient production and trade, improve transparency, accelerate innovation and joint planning and invest in food systems transformation. To that end, we suggest the following:

1. Support efficient production and trade: Governments in all countries need to urgently re-examine their agricultural trade and market interventions, such as subsidies and export restrictions, to identify and minimize distortions. Shorter interventions cause less harm than indefinite ones. Promoting the production of nutritious foods and repurposing the US$639 billion support per year provided to agriculture by governments can transform food systems and improve food security and nutrition. Preserving open trade in food, agriculture, and energy can reduce price distortions that dilute incentives for efficient production. Countries should follow through on commitments made at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference to restrain export restrictions on food and fertilizers and put in place trade facilitation measures. It is also important to support vulnerable countries efforts to import food. In this regard, we welcome the establishment of the IMF new food shock window, based on the proposal of a Food Import Financing Facility supported by the Global Crisis Response Group.

2. Improve transparency: Food market monitoring serves as an important and efficient early warning mechanism and must be supplemented with transparent tracking of financing by the international community to respond to the food crisis. Governments should provide necessary data and resources to support Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which enhances transparency in food markets through monitoring the prices and availability of major food crops and promoting policy responses.

3. Accelerate innovation and joint planning: Agricultural research and development is a chronically underinvested sector, while it has one of the highest returns on public spending. Innovation is crucial for meeting the long-term challenges to global food security and nutrition posed by climate change, land and ecosystem degradation, pests, and transboundary plant and animal diseases. 

4. Invest in food systems transformation: Strengthening the resilience of food systems to risks, including conflict, extreme weather events, economic shocks and diseases is key for the longer-term response. Addressing both infrastructure bottlenecks and input supply bottlenecks (e.g., fertilizers and seeds) are critical to an efficient food supply system. Effective and sustainable support to smallholder farmers will be vital to ensure they are part of the solution and to localize supply chains. 

Indeed, small-scale and family producers are essential for global food security and for poverty eradication. These farmers — including women, Indigenous peoples and youth — produce one-third of our food. Yet too often they go hungry themselves. Moreover, if we are to effectively adapt to climate change, then there are urgent financing gaps to be filled. Only 1.7 per cent of climate finance – a fraction of what is needed - goes to small-scale farmers in developing countries despite their disproportionate vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. This is within a context where the vast majority of climate finance is already directed towards mitigation, rather than adaptation. 

Our response to the looming food crisis – and the existential threat of climate change - must prioritize reaching rural poor people if it is to be effective and honour our shared commitment to “leave no one behind”.

Colleagues,

We face what is perhaps an unprecedented set of interconnected global challenges. But there is reason to hope. 

Last year’s UN Food Systems Summit led to an increased recognition that our daily individual choices of what to eat - based on what is available and accessible - touches us all, and underpins our cultures, our economies and our relationship with the natural world. The Summit resulted in well over 100 national pathways to transform food systems and which are now supporting various countries crisis response efforts, in collaboration with the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub and UN Country Teams.

And, more recently, we have seen much of the global community come together to support countries and communities cope with crisis and begin to get back on their feet.

There is more to do, but the SDGs continue to provide our shared blueprint for a better world. At FAO, IFAD and WFP, we remain committed to work with you to realize that vision. 

Thank you for your attention.