United Nations Security Council, Arria-formula Meeting on Food Security, Nutrition and Peace

United Nations Security Council, Arria-formula Meeting on Food Security, Nutrition and Peace           

 

I would like to thank the Governments of Angola and Spain for this opportunity to discuss the dynamic relationships between food security, nutrition and peace. This is the first time that FAO’s Director-General is addressing the UN Security Council, and I am honoured to be here.

 

FAO has long been concerned about the impact of war on food security and on how hunger can be one of the drivers of instability and conflict.

 

At the same time, we know that actions to promote food security can help prevent a crisis, mitigate its impacts and promote post-crisis recovery and healing.

 

FAO was established in 1945. As the world emerged from World War Two, our founders saw that FAO must play a vital role in the quest for peace.

 

They wrote, and I quote: “the Food and Agriculture Organization is born out of the need for peace as well as the need for freedom from want. The two are interdependent. Progress toward freedom from want is essential to lasting peace." 

 

Seven decades after the creation of FAO, UN Member States reinforced this idea by adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, based on the premise that “there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development”.

 

The link between food and peace underpinned the award of the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize to Lord Boyd Orr, FAO’s first Director-General. At that time, he wrote that, I quote: “Hunger is at the heart of the world’s troubles. Unless people are fed, the best treaties can come to nothing. Hungry people cannot be satisfied by anything but food.” 

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

My own deep personal conviction is that there can be no food security without peace, and no lasting peace without food security.

 

Peace and food security are mutually reinforcing. We have often seen hunger recede when stability prevails, such as in post-conflict Angola and Nicaragua, post-genocide Rwanda and post-independence Timor-Leste.

 

Similarly, however, violence and hunger are often locked in vicious cycles in which one feeds on the other.

 

Conflicts are a key driver of protracted crises, where the prevalence of undernourishment is three times higher than in the rest of the developing world.

 

The Global Hunger Index of 2015, elaborated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), notes that the countries with the highest levels of food insecurity are also those most affected by conflict.

 

Conflicts mostly affect rural areas and people, particularly women and children. Violent attacks on farming communities and the destruction of crops, livestock and markets undermine rural livelihoods and displace people from their homes. 

 

Although the relationships between hunger and conflict are complex and nonlinear, food insecurity is a factor that can contributes to the destabilization of societies and aggravate political instability.

 

Food protests contributed to the downfall of the government of Haiti in 2008. Food price rises coincided with protests during the Arab Spring of 2011.

 

In post-conflict situations, persistent high food insecurity can contribute to a resurgence of violence, as in the Central African Republic and Yemen.

 

Hunger that results from violence can generate further violence.

 

Food itself can become a weapon of war when it is stolen from civilians by fighters or deliberately withheld as a tactic, in the perverse logic of violence. This goes against International Humanitarian Law, but these strategies are still used.

 

In South Sudan, some 7 million people, over half of the population, are currently experiencing food insecurity in the context of continued violence. 2.8 million of them are in an acute situation.

 

If peace is not restored and assistance is not stepped up in South Sudan, the situation can deteriorate into famine.

 

Just five years ago, Somalia was hit by a famine that killed over 250,000 people, largely because of a failure on the part of the international community to respond in time to early warnings of impending disaster. Let us never again repeat such mistakes.

 

 

Excellencies,

 

The recent high-level UN reviews related to peace and security urge the UN to keep pace with evolving challenges and threats to international security.

 

There is a clear recognition that preventing crises and sustaining peace are Charter-based responsibilities shared across the UN system.

 

The Secretary-General’s report for the World Humanitarian Summit “One Humanity: Shared Responsibility” also calls for active engagement in conflict prevention.

 

As we all know, prevention requires addressing the root causes of conflict, including hunger and food insecurity.

 

Conflict-sensitive approaches to reducing food insecurity, which take into consideration the specific triggers of the conflict, and pro-peace approaches to increase food security are needed in a range of crises today.

 

In the Central African Republic, half of the population faces hunger. This is not only a threat to those who suffer, but to the stabilization process in the country.

 

In Syria, before the civil war started, agriculture employed half of the population. The sector has been seriously affected as farmers started fleeing their lands. Assisting farmers when it is safe for them to remain has been critical to prevent even more displacement and also to set the foundations for rebuilding Syria.

 

FAO is working with its partners to strengthen the food security and resilience of those that remain on their land in Syria, the vast majority of whom are women.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Agriculture also brings new life to shattered homes and communities. Supporting agriculture and rural livelihoods, can serve as a motivating rationale for bringing people together and to drive recovery.

 

Efforts to revive the agricultural sector and improve food security, including through social protection, have positive effects on the sustainability of peace. They are important “peace dividends”.

 

This is recognized, for example, by the Government of Colombia, which considers agriculture, rural development and food security as cornerstones of the peace process and of the social cohesion that must build in the post-conflict phase.

 

As I said at the beginning, the relationship between food security and peace, conflict and hunger has always been present in FAO´s work. But the invitation to brief you today has galvanized our internal reflection process.

 

FAO is developing a corporate peacebuilding policy to amplify our contribution to conflict prevention, and to support the establishment of peaceful, stable, and inclusive societies.

 

Implementing such a policy will require stronger engagement with governments and a wide range of peace building, humanitarian and development actors.

 

We already work closely with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and a wide range of other partners within and outside the UN System.

 

We welcome the challenge of strengthening and establishing more effective partnerships.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

In conclusion, when wars have loomed large, we have looked to agriculture to sustain vulnerable communities and help restore post-crisis economies. These remain essential functions.

 

And where hunger threatens peace, we must contribute to mitigating that risk through conflict-sensitive food security approaches.

 

Where food security can be a force for stability, we have to look to food and agriculture as pathways to peace and security.

 

This is a great challenge, but one that we can meet together as we embark on achieving the 2030 Development Agenda.

 

Let me finish quoting Mahatma Gandhi: “To a hungry man a piece of bread is the face of God”.

 

Thank you for your attention.