Humanitarian Affairs Segment side event discusses strengthening humanitarian–development nexus for food security and nutrition

We need updated food security and nutrition data in order to prioritize a response that is appropriate to needs as well as for advocacy purposes, said Monique Pariat, Director General of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid of the European Union, during the side-event “From Joint Analysis to humanitarian, development and peace actors' collective outcomes – the Food Security and Nutrition Sector experience” held on the margins of the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS) on 21 June in New York.

Co-organized by the Permanent Missions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Switzerland, Zambia and the European Union, as well as FAO, UNICEF and WFP, the side-event sought to shed light on how to best operationalize the humanitarian–development nexus from food security and nutrition perspectives and in a conflict-sensitive manner. The meeting looked, in particular, at the humanitarian response in DRC carried out by the government, the UN System and other partners.

Bernard Biando Sango, Minister of Solidarity and Humanitarian Action of DRC, expressed appreciation for the humanitarian response of the international community that brought much relief to vulnerable populations in the DRC. Saying that “a person who is hungry is not at peace,” Sango highlighted the need to employ a holistic approach to fight chronic malnutrition and build resilience. He welcomed the joint UN responses on the ground and appealed to all the humanitarian and development actors to support these partnerships.

Moderating the event, Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York, emphasized the need to raise global awareness and commitment on the need to address food crises in a sustainable manner. “It is imperative to create stronger synergies between immediate assistance and longer-term development action to end needs,” Mucavi said.

Christine Kalamwina, Deputy Permanent Representative for the Permanent Mission of Zambia, remarked that the search of sustainable solutions to address food crises is of paramount importance for the well-being of the people of Africa and the overall development and security of the continent.

Luca Russo, FAO Senior Food Crises Analyst, provided a global perspective on the challenges and some of the initiatives that are put in place by the international community to address the root causes of these crises, including the Global Network Against Food Crises and thte Global Report on Food Crises.

Speaking on behalf of the WFP and FAO country offices, Claude Jibidar, WFP Representative in DRC, shared a case study of the collaboration between UN agencies that could be scaled up to address the root causes of crises while meeting immediate needs, including a systematic FAO-WFP humanitarian response that provides food, vegetable seeds, staple crop seeds during the planting season.

Gianfranco Rotigliano, UNICEF Country Representative in DRC, presented an integrated program to tackle child malnutrition developed in partnership with the Congolese Government and the lessons learnt of this integrated approach of food security and nutrition.

Phoebe Girouard Spencer, Economist in the Fragility Conflict and Violence Group at World Bank, briefed the participants on the World Bank’s Famine Early Action Mechanism, which aims to enable more impactful famine responses through predictive risk analytics.

Giles Cerutti, First Secretary of the Humanitarian and Sustainable Development Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations, suggested a number of action to be undertaken at different levels: multi-sectoral approaches implemented in a joint manner; collaboration between humanitarian, development and peace actors at the headquarters level; and the implementation of early-warning mechanisms at the multilateral level.

Convened on the annual theme of “Restoring humanity, respecting human dignity and leaving no one behind: working together to reduce people’s humanitarian need, risk and vulnerability” the HAS provides a key opportunity for Member States, the United Nations system, humanitarian and development partners, the private sector and affected communities to discuss emerging and pressing humanitarian issues.