Reversing the food and hunger crisis: building resilient food systems

Tuesday, 25th July, 14:30-17:30

Food systems are defective or down-right broken across the globe where:

• 258 million people face acute food insecurity.
• By 2030 the number of youths will have grown to nearly 1.3 billion. 
• Gender inequalities in food and agriculture are costing the world 1 trillion dollars, annually.
• The number of people whose livelihood depends on degraded lands has been estimated to 1.5 billion worldwide.
• Currently, there are 169 active conflicts world-wide. A review of a layered analysis in the Sahel showed that there is over 80% overlap between degraded land resources, acute hunger, and conflict.

The session will focus on the following questions.

• How have the country pathways on food systems adapted to continue delivering food security and nutrition in the face of increasing shocks and stressors?
• What are the main calls for action --deriving from successes, challenges and bottlenecks experienced so far-- needed to advance the agenda to 2030?
• How will the session contribute to promoting action at scale?

A reversal of negative trends is possible by

• Promoting strategic investments to include smallholder farmers in procurement for social protection or national programmes to promote affordable and healthy diets;
• Restoring soil and water resources through farmer-led regenerative agriculture and other climate adaptation interventions;
• Promoting and operationalizing actions towards ZERO tolerance for post-harvest losses;
• Boosting local food value chains by promoting local consumption and export;
• Mobilizing an unprecedented number of youth to create a virtuous cycle for food system transformation and environmental sustainability.

Resilient food systems are the cornerstone for sustainable growth and prosperity and will address --through actionable transformative solutions- the needs of people, particularly the youth, the marginalized and women-- who endure conflict, economic disturbances, ecological degradation and climate change.  This session will propose actions that promote sustainable and diversified value chains, scale-up ecosystem restoration, bring equity, food and nutrition security, decent jobs, better services and infrastructure for people to overcome the consequences of multiple shocks and stressors.

Resilient food systems can and will accelerate the reversal of negative trends that have affected the gains made towards the SDGs. Experience show that where land and water resources are restored food systems heal, and growth follow.  Youth, women and other disadvantaged groups participate in the production, transformation and marketing of food; local communities are revitalized; access to nutritious food broadens; farmers embrace regenerative agriculture and climate adaptation.   The national pathways mark a direction, ensuring that positive experiences are scaled up, and challenges and obstacles overcome to transform the lives of people.

Ministerial Statements

Speakers

Interventions from the floor