Countries in Asia and the Pacific have highlighted an urgency to move forward with transformation of their agrifood systems, following a three-day symposium convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The need to transform the region’s agrifood system was identified following the aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which enormously disrupted the agricultural value chain systems globally as well as in Asia and the Pacific region. The urgency for such a transformation wasfirst recorded during the UN Food Systems Summit held in New York in 2021. This FAO regional symposium is the first attempt in the Asia-Pacific region to turn the UNFSS commitments into action.

“In order to achieve SDGs, we need a major transformation – one that begins with our agrifood systems, pursuing actions, solutions, innovations, technologies, and financing, towards the global commitment made at the UNFSS,” said FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, at the beginning of the inaugural session. “We need bold action.”

Government Ministers from 12 Member Nations including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Japan, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and Viet Nam spoke strongly in favour of reshaping and reimagining our agrifood systems. 

Two high-level panel discussions on the impacts of the pandemic, and the 5F crisis (food, feed, fuel, fertilizer, and finance) and catalysts for agrifood systems transformation, and translating UNFSS commitments into actions followed.

A special session was dedicated to the disproportionately vulnerable situation of agrifood systems in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The participants highlighted an urgent need to transform their entire agrifood systems, after nearly three years of pandemic, conflicts and the “5F” crises of food, feed, fuel, fertilizer and lack of finance.

FAO’s strategy to help Members achieve the SDGs through a ‘Four Betters’ approach

Speakers from Member Nations were joined by academia, civil society organizations and experts from FAO and other UN entities to consider agrifood systems transformation through the ‘Four Betters’ approach, a corner stone of FAO’s Strategic Framework (2022-31). The aim is to transform these systems through focusing on outcomes of better production, better nutrition, better environment and better lives.

Sessions on the importance of data gathering and statistics to ensure accurate indicators for progress, multi-stakeholder collaboration and the private sector, promoting the critical need for large-scale investments, through public, private, and blended approaches, and an examination of how the UN system is supporting Member States through the UNFSS Hub to share knowledge – all rounded out the three-day symposium.

The delegates highlighted the fact that financing and investment will be required to address the big challenges facing such a transformation of the global agrifood system. However, they agreed that by working together, the region and the world can leverage opportunities for transformational change through multi-stakeholder, coordinated efforts.

By all accounts, however, this would take major political and financial commitments.

Indeed, the FAO Director-General emphasized that the “cost of ending hunger, doubling the incomes of small-scale producers, and protecting the climate, is estimated at an additional of 19 billion dollars per year on average until 2030, coming from developing countries, and a further 14 billion a year from donors.”

At the closing session, Jong-Jin Kim, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific congratulated participants for moving forward with a transformational pathway.

“This event has also shown us a range of solutions, from traditional to modern, from low tech to high tech, from those that are whole of systems-based to those that are sectoral but can have impact at scale and lead to Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and Better Lives, leaving no one behind,” he said. “I am very positive after these three days that we can accelerate agrifood systems transformation and we are all open to collaborating and buildng coalitions that can deliver results by working together.”