UN General Assembly boosts focus on food and agriculture with key resolutions
The United Nations General Assembly concluded its 74th session today by adopting a series of resolutions relevant to the mandate of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Seven of these resolutions were directly supported by FAO.
The biannual Sustainable Mountain Development resolution fosters the conservation of mountain ecosystems and the improvement of the local populations’ well-being. The resolution highlights the special vulnerability of people living in mountain environments, particularly local communities and indigenous peoples with limited access to health, education and economic systems. It promotes transboundary initiatives, infrastructure investments and capacity-building programmes in mountainous areas as means of tackling the negative effects of climate change and isolation. Finally, the resolution takes special note of the key role that mountain farmers and pastoralists play in agroecology. Sustainable Mountain Development was presented and facilitated by the Permanent Missions of the Kyrgyz Federation and Italy to the United Nations (UN), with FAO providing technical secretariat support. On 11 December, Kyrgyzstan further promoted the sustainable mountain development agenda by cohosting an event with other UN Member States and FAO to celebrate the International Mountain Day 2019.
The Permanent Mission of Australia to the UN facilitated the 2019 annual resolution on Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition. FAO was the main penholder of the Secretary-General’s report and provided substantive secretariat support for the resolution. For the first time in the last three years, the resolution was adopted by consensus. Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition supports national and global strategies that promote sustainable agriculture and rural development in developing countries with the aim of achieving food security for all. The resolution recognizes the critical role of smallholders and family farmers in revitalizing rural areas and supports efforts to set up an equitable and multilateral trading system as a means to achieve the sustainable development goal of eradicating hunger by 2030.
It had been two years since the resolution on Agricultural Technology for Sustainable Development was last considered by the General Assembly, and this time the focus was on using innovative agricultural technology to address the needs of farmers and create new, higher-paying jobs for the young people in the sector. The resolution takes note of the various ways that digitalization can be used to add value throughout the food system, for example by improving the sustainability of storage, transport, processing etc. To that end, the UN encourages the advancement of relevant scientific research, which will in turn generate entrepreneurial activity. Agricultural Technology for Sustainable Development was presented and facilitated by Israel, with FAO providing substantive secretariat services.
The Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN presented and facilitated the new Natural Plant Fibers and Sustainable Development resolution. Natural plant fibers are a staple source of income for many communities in developing countries. Moreover, they serve as environmentally-friendly alternatives to single-use plastic products, as they are recyclable, biodegradable and renewable. The resolution aims at incentivizing the public and private sectors to develop overarching projects that will integrate small-scale holders in the sustainable use and production of natural plant fibers. Bangladesh thanked FAO for supporting the resolution.
Three of the adopted resolutions for which FAO acted as secretariat declared international observances. Specifically, the General Assembly announced that 2021 will be the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, and declared the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, and the International Tea Day. For more information on these observances, click on the dedicated links.
From the rest of the resolutions, many pertained to food, agriculture and other aspects of FAO’s mandate. For example, the resolution on Eradicating Rural Poverty to Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims at eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions. Despite the remarkable progress made in development so far, rural poverty remains a global challenge. The resolution notes that nearly 80% of the extremely poor in the world live in rural areas. Ensuring that they have access to basic health and education resources, as well as that they are regarded as equals whether they are women or men, will make a big difference in putting an end to their extreme poor status. Therefore, the General Assembly uses this resolution as a platform to encourage international organizations and the public sector to actively support gender-positive socioeconomic development in rural areas. Despite not having provided substantive secretariat services, FAO supported this resolution indirectly by co-organizing a high-level event with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in order to facilitate ongoing discussions regarding the resolution.
The final documents of the adopted resolutions can be found here.