UNFSS+4 Briefing to National Convenors Opening Remarks

Dear National Convenors,

As you know, we are going to have the Food Systems Summit +4 in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in July, which marks a pivotal milestone in our collective work since the pre-Summit in Rome.

It is almost five years that we are preparing, so now it is time to think deeper and holistically, and I want to share several thoughts with you.

First: What is a game changer? From the global level to the national level, down to the local level.

National Convenors, you are the real game changers! You have to carry out consultations, provide suggestions to your Ministers – all relevant Ministers not only Ministers of Agriculture and Food, but other Ministers as well including Ministers for Finance, for Economy, and for Innovations.

For this reason, National Convenors are game changers for global agrifood systems transformation.

Second point: you are also coordinators. Some of you are at the Vice-Minister level or other senior level, therefore you can play a leadership role.

You are crucial for us - as game changers of the agrifood systems transformation - from strategy to action.

Third point: you coordinate relevant partners, not only government officials, investors, scientists, civil society, farmers, farmers’ organizations, but even consumers, and consumer organizations.

I have always believed that consumption and consumers are the driving forces to lead the change, to lead the transformation of agrifood systems.

So, any country - whether you have a long, rich experience and good practice or not - you can share through this platform: the Food Systems Summit +4 meeting.

In Ethiopia you can see the real experience, but you should also share this experience, to make it more standardized.

I encourage the Coordination Hub to provide Ethiopia with a standardized form that can simply be filled in with their best practices at the policy level, investment level, science and innovation level, farmers or farmers’ organization level, civil society level, and private sector level.

A digital, not paper, format form that can set out what their best practices are, so that before the meeting, we can share, we can learn, we can discuss – this is my third point.

My fourth point refers to the Coordination Hub hosted here at FAO. This is an important service we offer to you, and we want to make it more efficient, more effective, and more fit for purpose. That is my political commitment to the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General, and other partners.

At FAO, we are the only Specialized Agency in the UN family to deal with agrifood systems transformation, innovation, policies, consultations, and marketing.

We established the earliest Committee on Commodity Problems of agriculture in 1947, because we need an open, transparent, international trade in agrifood systems, especially commodities.

Let us share the commodities, share the food, share the culture, to build a real and shared future for mankind.

Thank you.