FAO at the Fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Population and Development
The Commission on Population and Development, at its fifty-fourth session (CPD54), considered the special theme of “Population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development”. As members opened the fifty-fourth session, they heard that the COVID-19 continues to expose links between gender inequality, food insecurity and poor access to health care and reproductive rights, the global community has an obligation to build back better, fairer and more sustainably for the estimated 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050.
During the opening segment, FAO Director-General, Qu Dongyu, delivered a video statement. He said that the world’s food systems are suffering from vast inequalities and already exceed planetary boundaries for key resources. Billions of people still cannot afford healthy diets and struggle for decent livelihoods within and outside agriculture, and in rural and urban areas. Emphasizing that a business-as-usual scenario “is simply not an option”, he called for concrete action to achieve the 2030 Agenda’s multiple targets simultaneously. Spotlighting several key trade-offs, he said efforts are needed to increase agricultural output while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to scale up automation while supporting employment with decent wages. More sustainable and affordable agricultural technologies are needed, even as human capital is built up and social protection policies enacted, he said.
The opening segment also saw that participation of H.E. Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations; H.E. Alpha Barry, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration and Burkinabè Abroad; Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund; Gilbert Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development; Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) (delivered by Mr. Elliott Harris, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist, DESA); and Ms. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy for the Food Systems Summit. Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck of Bhutan delivered the keynote speech at the opening.
Second day of the annual session
The Commission kicked off its morning meeting with a high-level panel on the road towards the United Nations Food Systems Summit. Experts outlined innovative approaches to transform global food systems — assuring that an end to hunger can be within reach.
FAO Chief Economist, Maximo Torero, said 690 million people were malnourished before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that figure is likely to increase as a direct result of the global health crisis. To address this issue, he called for increased focus on agricultural reform that accounts for the lived reality of the 1.5 billion people directly employed in that sector. “Food systems transformation must be people‑centred and requires acting beyond sectoral boundaries to promote interventions that protect the environment and provide financial assistance to the most vulnerable populations,” he said, at the same time warning policymakers to consider the trade-offs that will emerge as efforts intensify to end undernourishment by 2050. View the recording.
Major achievement marks session’s conclusion
The CPD marked a major achievement as it adopted its first consensus outcome document in five years, at the conclusion of its fifty-fourth session, with delegates praising the timely focus on links between food security, nutrition, sustainable development and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. This will underpin the ICPD Programme of Action and to the Decade of Action for the SDGs. It will also send a strong message to upcoming Summits, including the Food Systems Summit. Read the resolution.
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