General Assembly adopts resolution stressing need for intensifying efforts to tackle food insecurity

Today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that emphasizes urgent, concerted, scaled-up action to combat food insecurity and the need to achieve sustainable agriculture and food systems.

The resolution, entitled “Agriculture development, food security and nutrition,” expressed concern that the current pace and scope of implementing SDG 2 is insufficient for transformational change needed to eradicate hunger by 2030, considering the multiple and complex root causes of food crises.

The text took note with appreciation two of FAO’s recent publications, “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) 2018 and “The State of Food and Agriculture” (SOFA) 2018, citing the findings that the number of chronically undernourished people in the world increased to nearly 821 million in 2017 and that global nutrition challenges are increasingly complex as multiple forms of malnutrition may coexist.

In this context, the resolution stressed that the current challenges in food security require a comprehensive and coordinated response that strives for a twin-track approach consisting of action to tackle immediate needs and to achieve medium- and long-term food security.

The resolution also emphasized that sustainable agriculture, food security food safety and nutrition were key elements for the eradication of poverty and highlighted the importance of accelerating and scaling up action to make food systems and people’s livelihoods more resilient. The importance of early warning systems was also recognized.

Reaffirming the need to promote, enhance and support more sustainable agriculture, including by using approaches such as agroecology, the resolution also acknowledged FAO’s role as a Biodiversity Mainstreaming Platform.

The text also recognized efforts made by Member States and UN agencies including FAO in commitments to the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) and the upcoming UN Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028), while encouraging countries to give due consideration to voluntary guidelines, including those on responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests, responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.