Interview to Gabriel Ferrero, Director General for Sustainable Development Cooperation Policies of the Government of Spain, on occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Right to Food Guidelines.

In the view of the Government of Spain, how can the right to adequate food to help to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda?

Gabriel Ferrero: For us the right to adequate food is an element that is at the center of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each of the SDG should be addressed from a perspective based on the human rights.

The right to adequate food is key, as it is specially well conceptualized and framed within the Right to Food Guideline, which reinforces accountability, non-discrimination, transparency or participation.

To which extend can the Right to Food Guidelines respond the needs of urban and peri-urban food environments?

GF: The Guidelines can perfectly adapt to work and interaction between people, consumers and producers, in which local dimension increases every time more and more.

Indeed, actions and measures for the realization of the right to food have to be articulated at the municipality level, urban or rural, and the linking between them.

In line with the Right to Food Guidelines, how can multistakeholder initiatives contribute to the sustainable development?

GF: One single type of actor can not address the complexity of problems such as hunger. It is necessary the active collaboration of all those that are involved. This might result in a decisive and long-term change to make effective the right to food or any other dimension of the SDG.

Participation of all actors has become a crucial component since the beginning in Spain of the of the 2030 Agenda in Spain. We are putting this roadmap into practice at different levels, as the Parliamentary Alliance, the Sustainable Development Council or the Observatory of the Right to Food (ODA-E) showcase.

About Gabriel Ferrero

Gabriel Ferrero is Director General of Sustainable Development Policies in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Development of Spain. Previously has served as Senior Adviser for the 2030 Agenda Implementation. He has worked as Senior Policy Adviser in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary General from 2011 to 2017. From 2012 to December 2015, he was part of the Post-2015 Development Planning Team, under the leadership of Amina J. Mohammed. Before joining the UN, he served as Deputy Director General of Development Policies Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Gbariel holds a PhD on Development Planning and Management by the Technological University of Valencia, Spain, in which he served as full time professor for ten years.