SPECIAL HIGH-LEVEL PANEL JOINTLY ORGANIZED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (PGA) AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC)

SPECIAL HIGH-LEVEL PANEL JOINTLY ORGANIZED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (PGA) AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC)

 

Robust and resilient recovery from the ongoing crises and building synergy and coherence among the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2022-31 (DPoA), 2030 Agenda and Our Common Agenda 

Remarks

By

Dr QU DONGYU, FAO Director-General

8 February 2023

 

 

Excellences,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. I have been asked to contribute to today’s panel by considering how the current global food crisis is affecting the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and the way forward to overcome it.

2. We have seen over the past years that the LDCs are particularly vulnerable to:

• the impacts of the climate crisis,
• local environmental and natural resource degradation,
• loss of biodiversity,
• downturns due to the pandemic and economic disruptions,
• sharp increases in international prices of essential energy and fertilizer inputs for agricultural production,
• volatility in food and commodity markets, and
• protracted conflict.

 
3. Today, we need to focus on progress going forward.

4. We need more ambitious, and more effective action now to prevent a deeper crisis tomorrow, through a broad and collective agenda.

5. The Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries is crosscutting to the 2030 Agenda and to Our Common Agenda, and provides complementary perspectives to our global challenges.

6. It is our shared ambition to secure for all people, everywhere, the minimum conditions of a peaceful and dignified life, including secure access to safe, nutritious food, while at the same time remaining in harmony with the planet.

7. The over-arching 2030 Agenda forces us to recognize the interdependence and complexity of modern economies, and the simultaneous urgent need to bring about large-scale changes.

8. To address these complexities we need more effective policy action.

9. We need to focus on transforming systems that connect people and actions, through development from science- and evidence-based analyses.

 

10. To transform global agrifood systems, we must evaluate the potential impacts and trade-offs of alternative courses of action for employment and livelihoods,

11. And for the health of people and planet by restoring and protecting the biosphere and the stability of our climate.

12. To accomplish this, the sciences of agrifood systems must become more open and accountable,

13. And knowledge, data and information must become more accessible and useful for all countries, especially the LDCs.

14. FAO and many partners around the globe, both public and private, from within and outside the UN system, are working collectively to support this change by building a new geospatial platform that provides all countries with access to millions of data layers and a growing library of tools to develop actionable knowledge for policy, innovation and investment.

15. The Doha Programme of Action for the LDCs reminds us that the economic and social agenda for transitioning to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems remains essential for development.

16. The development of industry and services are also essential aspects of the structural transformation that accompanies the transition to all modern economies,

17. Yet all successful transformations have begun by improving agricultural productivity.

18. The escape from extreme poverty and vulnerability for the LDCs passes through agrifood systems transformation, which creates the conditions for industrialization, the expansion of trade and investment, and the growth of services and urbanization.

19. Agrifood systems transformation in the context of LDCs means:

• One: improving productivity, social inclusion, resilience and sustainability;
• Two: strengthening trade linkages;
• Three: accelerating investments in both physical infrastructure and human capital; and
• Four: innovation in technology, know-how and institutions.

 

20. It also means developing and sharing understanding of methods, practices and technologies that protect and restore the natural resource base and their ecosystems,

21. And that maximize the positive potential of agrifood systems for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

22. To drive all this we need a very significant step-up in the scale and pace of investment and trade.

23. Through the FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative, where most of the participating countries are LDCs, we are seeing that many Governments are building their new development plans on a sound foundation of ambitious agrifood systems transformation.

24. These efforts have been stimulated by the preparatory and follow-up processes for the Secretary-General’s Food Systems Summit 2021, which will have its first Stocktaking Moment in Rome from 24 to 26 July this year.

25. And we are beginning to see that the innovations and the investments that are needed can be supplied through new larger-scale, multi-stakeholder, territory-based collaborations.

26. Finally, Our Common Agenda reminds us that the cost of modern life is increasing our interdependence, mutual vulnerability and complexity.

27. A new social contract is needed to guide and sustain our common life and our shared planet – we must remember that we are all together on this small planet. What happens on one side of the planet affects all of us.

28. We must strengthen and consolidate our collective vision and commitment to ensure the universal right to availability, accessibility and affordability to food for all.

29. Food is a basic and universal human right.

30. In closing, I wish to take this opportunity to convey my personal condolences to all the people suffering due to the earthquakes over the past days in Türkiye and Syria.

31. Thank you.