International day of awareness of food loss and waste reduction (FLW)

Live Broadcast

Context

In 2019, during the 74th United Nations General Assembly, September 29 was designated as International Food Loss and Waste Awareness (FLW) Day, recognizing the critical role of sustainable agri-food systems in food security and nutrition. This date was chosen to commemorate the “First Regional Dialogue on Food Loss and Waste”, held in 2015 at the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.

An estimated 13% of the world's food is lost in the supply chain, from post-harvest to retail, and another 17% is wasted in households, food services and retail. The highest levels of losses occur in nutrient-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables (32%), meat and fish (12.4%). Alarming figures considering that there are 43.2 million people who suffer from undernourishment in Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition, the region have the highest cost of a healthy diet compared to other regions of the world, due to the cost of this diet in the Caribbean.

As before the anniversary, on August 24th, the FAO, the Vatican and the Ministry of Agriculture of Chile joined in the discussion “Preventing and reducing food losses and waste in the context of food security and nutrition. An intersectoral challenge”, where the speakers highlighted the need for strong intersectoral work to reduce food losses and waste and pointed out that these problems not only reflect a dysfunction in the agri-food system but are also an evident inequity in the distribution of the food

To date, two commemoration activities have been carried out in coordination with the partners of the regional agenda on the No Waste platform coordinated by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), inviting public and private actors from the agri-food system.

For this third version, FAO continues to work closely with the IDB and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Aim

This year the PDA Day aims to promote the reduction of food losses and waste by raising awareness about the magnitude and importance of this phenomenon in social, environmental and financial matters, thus contributing to guaranteeing food security for all and reducing gas emissions. This event will bring together diverse voices in the region to promote a message of unity around the transformation of food systems, moving towards a more sustainable and resilient future.