UN turns gaze towards 2021 Food Systems Summit
The Economic and Financial Committee (Second Committee) of the 75th UN General Assembly convened to discuss the Secretary-General’s report on Agriculture development, food security and nutrition.
Following the introduction of the report, the Director of FAO’s Food Systems and Food Safety Division and Lead on Knowledge and Policy for the Food Systems Summit Secretariat, Jamie Morrison, was invited by the Second Committee Chair, Amrit Bahadur Rai of Nepal, to deliver remarks on behalf of the Secretariat about the Secretary-General's 2021 Food Systems Summit.
The Summit, which Morrison called a “transformative moment”, will form part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It will launch bold actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies to some degree on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems.
Morrison elaborated on the preparatory process, which will include a pre-Summit event in Rome, as well as on post-event actions.
Food Systems Summit Dialogues, led globally, by Member States, and independently, will serve as platforms to elevate ideas to five Action Tracks:
- ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all;
- shifting to sustainable consumption patterns;
- boosting nature-positive production systems;
- advancing equitable livelihoods; and
- building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.
These ideas will provide a basis for ground testing game-changing solutions, aimed at bringing about tangible, positive changes for the world’s food systems.
“With the 2021 Food Systems Summit, the UN wants to elevate public discourse on the importance of food systems for sustainable development; identify measurable actions to achieve the SDGs; establish a high-level set of principles to leverage food systems capacity; and set in place a system of follow-up and review,” explained Morrison.
Member States can now take advantage of the momentum created by World Food Day 2020 to express their willingness to lead Food Systems Summit Dialogues at national level, and to indicate which Action Tracks they want to engage in.