UNGA Side Event on “Championing SDG 12.3 and the Pathway to Zero Hunger”

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Today an estimated 800 million people are chronically undernourished, two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies and nearly two billion suffer from overweight and obesity.

 

We cannot address problems of this magnitude – we cannot end hunger and all forms of malnutrition – unless we make our food systems – from production to consumption – more efficient, sustainable, inclusive, resilient and nutrition-driven.

 

Today we are focusing on one element of this challenge: reducing the unacceptably large levels of losses and waste of food that take place along entire food value chains.

 

This is a matter that demands our urgent attention and work.

 

 

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Six years ago, in 2011, FAO commissioned and published the report titled ‘Global Food Losses and Food Waste’ that provided the first rough estimates of annual global losses and waste of agricultural products intended for human consumption as food.

 

The well-known findings of this study were dramatic and helped inspire a global revolution in thinking about and action to reduce food losses and waste as a means to improve food security and address malnutrition.

 

In 2015, the 2030 Agenda, target 12.3, brought food loss and waste to global attention for action, and, in the last few years, we have seen an impressive global movement of producers of all sizes, large processors and distributors, chefs, school teachers, and consumers join forces to build awareness and advocate for concrete action to combat food loss and waste.

 

The response of the UN system and the Rome-based agencies, and of leading philanthropies, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, which we have heard about today, is especially gratifying.

 

Our discussion today demonstrates some of the many diverse ways in which all social actors can contribute and are contributing to reducing food losses and waste.

 

What Next?

 

The big question now is: How do we move ahead towards achieving SDG 12.3?

 

I would like to highlight three areas that call for priority attention.

 

The first is accurate data: To promote and sustain effective action, we need more and better data covering where and how food losses and waste occur.  We need proper evidence in order to see how reducing food loss and waste can improve food security and nutritional outcomes.

 

As custodian of the SDG 12.3 indicator, FAO has accepted responsibility for the development of a new global indicator against which countries and other stakeholders can report on food loss and waste using a common methodology.

 

To advance this work, FAO will hold an Expert Consultation on Measurement and Action on Food Loss and Food Waste in the context of SDG 12.3, September 28-29, 2017 to present the Organization’s approach and to learn from experiences of specialists and practitioners from other institutions in developed and developing countries. 

 

A second area of work is implementing actions to address the specific sources of food loss and waste in commodity and food value chains.

 

To this end, FAO has developed tools and methodologies for identifying food losses, their causes and potential solutions.

 

FAO is working along the entire food supply chain, from production, through post-harvest systems management, storage and processing to distribution and final consumers.

 

Our approach recognises that improvements must benefit all actors and incentives must be put in place to bring about change to reduce losses, improve quality and safety of food and generate income for farmers.

 

At the value chain level, we focus on identifying targets for process changes or investments that result in the most beneficial returns.

 

As an example, work in South and South-East Asia with smallholder fruit and vegetable producers found that critical loss points for tomatoes occurred at harvesting and during transport.

 

Losses during transport were on the order of twenty percent due to damage from pressure, caused by bulk packing in sacks. Piloting of improved bulk packaging practices – use of plastic crates - with the participation of producers and other stakeholders, resulted in a ninety eight percent reduction of these losses.

 

A third area for priority attention is promoting collaboration – unity of purpose and unity of commitment – for greater coherence and effectiveness of action.

 

While there are many discrete points of entry for reducing food loss and waste, it is vitally important to promote a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to addressing, particularly, food losses.

 

We need to recognize and act on the knowledge that many actions taken to reduce food loss can also help contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation, reduce natural resource consumption and degradation, and contribute to resilience of livelihoods and incomes.

 

At the same time, we must be alert to the potential for trade-offs.

 

Policies and regulation can result in higher food prices and place excessive burdens on producers, and thus compensating policies may be required to ensure food affordability for the poor.

 

Food loss and waste should therefore be part of a comprehensive policy and regulatory framework which addresses food security and sustainable agriculture and food systems. Policies which strengthen synergies and address trade-offs with those addressing food losses and waste should be explored.

 

To promote shared learning and collaboration, FAO in 2013, included the global initiative on food loss and waste reduction known as Save Food in its strategic framework.

 

The Save Food platform includes a network of partners from international organizations, the private sector, civil society and many other actors and promotes awareness of the issues.

 

We now need to accelerate the pace and upscale our actions, if we are to attain SDG 12.3 at the global level. No one institution can do this on its own.

 

Clearly, action at the global level is required to scale up our efforts toward meeting that goal. 

 

This will necessitate partnerships and collaboration for action and action at scale.

 

Finally, it is important that in all our work we keep in mind the abiding commitment of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind.

 

What this means practically is that we must continually press ourselves to ask: How does what we are doing benefit the poor and vulnerable – and how do we measure and hold ourselves accountable for ensuring that benefit?

 

Thank you.