HLPF FAO High-Level Event “Financing for Sustainable and Inclusive Agrifood Systems and Food Crises Prevention and Mitigation”

HLPF

FAO High-Level Event

“Financing for Sustainable and Inclusive Agrifood Systems

and Food Crises Prevention and Mitigation” 

Statement

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

10 July 2023

 

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon or good evening.

 

Welcome all. It is a great honour for me to be here with you on my first official visit after my re-election. Thank you for all your support. Now, let’s work together! I will speed up and scale up, to achieve more – more efficiently and more effectively.

 

In the last three years, we have experienced several and often overlapping shocks to global agrifood systems, including the pandemic, climate extremes, conflicts, and of course the war in Ukraine.

 

This series of ongoing and unexpected shocks has caused unprecedented supply chain disruptions, followed by a decrease of purchasing power, whether in developing or developed countries, our purchasing power has really decreased, especially for poor people.

 

As the rising food, fuel and fertilizer prices have increased the cost of agriculture production.

 

The results of these successive crises are daunting.

 

On 12 July, together with partner agencies, we will launch the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2023, which will inform on the number of people who faced hunger and chronic food insecurity in 2022.

 

Higher prices have increased the global food import bill to an estimated all-time high, surpassing USD 1.94 trillion, further stressing the balance of payments and increasing debt burdens, especially for net-importers of food.

 

Global agrifood systems need to be transformed through effective policies, targeted investments and strengthened institutions.

 

As they are key to creating the conditions for an inclusive and sustainable transformation of economies and societies, and to achieving the SDGs by 2030.

 

Agrifood systems account for one-third of global GDP, with shares reaching 50 percent or higher in many low-income countries. This afternoon I had an intensive and long discussion with the Under Secretary General for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, and we both agreed that if we do not work together with that group of countries, we cannot say we have completed our mission on the SDGs, no matter how many years it takes. That is our shared responsibility, our shared mission. We have to work together.

 

Eighty percent of the global poor are living in rural areas, and for the vast majority their livelihoods depend, directly or indirectly, on agrifood systems.

 

Agrifood systems account for 40 to 60 percent of total employment in Asia and Africa respectively.

 

A sustainable economic future is not possible without increasing their efficiency, inclusivity, resilience and sustainability.

 

And we have very high expectations from our agrifood systems:

• they need to meet the increased demand for food, while they reduce the pressure on natural resources;
• they must reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• the have to increase resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis; and
• ensure decent employment.

 

Expectations are even more challenging against a backdrop of weakened financial systems and limited fiscal space.

 

Currently, our current agrifood systems use 60 percent of the world’s ecosystems, while agriculture generates around a quarter of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to biodiversity loss. 

 

Mobilizing resources and increasing investment for the needed transformation is an effective strategy to:

• alleviate poverty,
• fight hunger,
• boost productivity,
• tackle gender inequalities,
• adapt to and mitigate climate change, and
• accelerate structural transformation.

 

There is evidence to suggest that reforming the way we allocate resources is as essential as increasing them.

 

Governments should rethink how they can allocate their existing public budgets to make them more cost-effective and efficient in reducing the cost of nutritious foods, and increasing the availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy diets.

 

People have to break down food security into three aspects: food availability, food accessibility and food affordability. All Members, from the richest to the poorest, have a different combination of challenges among the three elements.

 

Repurposing of agriculture support is key for sustaining public goods and services, and towards better nutrition.

 

Addressing challenges related to de-risking green financing will open this source of financing for low-income countries and small producers.

 

Building the resilience and sustainability of agrifood systems are two sides of the same coin.

 

In crises and emergencies, we have a long way to go before we effectively re-balance humanitarian and emergency funding and implement a nexus framework.

 

International development finance will be needed for countries with low public budgets.

 

This will be key to ease the transition towards higher general services support to effectively bridge productivity gaps in the production of nutritious foods.

 

To support countries to shoulder the soaring costs of food imports and improve access to food, FAO proposed a Global Food Import Financing Facility that covered 62 countries with a total population of 1.78 billion people, and which was later adopted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of its Food Shock Window.

 

FAO is committed to support its Members to explore innovative approaches and strategies that integrate mitigation and prevention of food crises, and the transformation of agrifood systems.

 

For Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life for all – leaving no one behind.

 

Let’s have a common understanding: learning together, working together and contributing together.

 

I thank you for your attention.