World Effort vs. Hunger Urged

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu, told world leaders and other participants in the Pre-Summit to the UN Food Systems Summit that there was an acute need for renewed global efforts to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030, as envisaged under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Photo Insert: Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Qu Dongyu

As he urged increased funding, Qu also called for greater efficiency, as well as a sustained push for “scientific innovation and digital technologies."

Qu was speaking at the closure of the three-day preparatory event that ended Thursday for the main summit to be held in New York later this year. It was the first-ever global gathering dedicated to the root-and-branch reform of the way we grow, market and consume food; and the UN’s first hybrid event of such magnitude, with proceedings unfolding in a mixed physical-virtual format.

Optimism against the odds

The FAO Director-General’s address capped a series of debates featuring stakeholders across agri-food systems – including many whose voices are seldom heard in official fora, such as smallholder farmers.

There was broad agreement that the current agri-food systems do not work for much of the world population – or indeed, for the planet.

As the latest FAO-led report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World makes clear, between 720 and 811 million people suffered from hunger in 2020: the numbers have been worsening year on year, and more so amid the COVID-19-induced economic slump.

Yet more people are gripped by food insecurity, without reliable, year-round access to food that is sufficient and/or nutritious enough. And for as many as three billion people, healthy diets remain unaffordable. All the while, biodiversity degrades, further undermining the world’s ability to feed itself.

Despite such sobering statements of fact, Qu expressed hope that a combination of efforts on the economic, environmental, and even cultural fronts could still deliver the required transformation.

As the pre-summit wound down, the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, outlined Italy’s leading role in promoting food security – both historically and in the run-up to 2030, when the SDGs come due.

He described food as a “fundamental right of the person” as he sketched out three major policy action tracks: engaging the private sector; the pursuit of a zero-waste approach; and a prominent place for local food systems, community-rooted and steeped in centuries-honed knowledge, alongside modern transnational food systems.

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