FAO calls for anticipatory action in support of agriculture to give relief and hope to households in crises

Timely and robust actions can reduce hunger and human suffering as a result of crises, and that's truer than ever in the wake of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu told participants in the High-Level pledging event for the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the second-largest donor to FAO's humanitarian programme.

"The shocks of 2020 will reverberate long into 2021," said the Director-General. Noting the extraordinary challenges faced this year, from the pan-continental desert locust upsurge to the global pandemic, Qu said the number of people facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity may rise further "unless we act now and act at scale."

FAO is strongly advocating investment in emergency agriculture interventions, as four out of five people living in food crisis contexts rely on some form of agriculture for their survival, the Director-General said. "Rescuing those livelihoods not only saves their lives today but gives them hope for tomorrow," Qu added.

 "In the chaos of an emergency it makes an enormous difference to act quickly and at scale," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks. He emphasized that the CERF is only half-way to reaching its target of $1 billion for 2020. But "momentum is building for this anticipatory approach," he added.