WORLD FOOD FORUM 2024 HAND-IN-HAND INVESTMENT FORUM OPENING Opening Statement

Excellences,

Dear Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleague and Friends,

I am very pleased to officially open the 2024 Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum.

Business is changing! FAO’s shared value is providing the platform for countries to present their enabling policies to attract investments.

Now the Investment Forum has grown to become a key pillar of the World Food Forum, because finance and investment are critical to achieving agrifood systems transformation to unlock their potential to sustainably deliver good food for all, for today and tomorrow.

It is a new business model to transform from donations – which reflects the classic format - to investments with win - win implications for a shared future – because we live in a shared economy, in a shared world, with digital tools.

This year’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report confirms that we are far from reaching our objective of eliminating hunger and malnutrition.

The SOFI report informs that one out of 11 people in the world, and one out of every five in Africa and South Asia, experienced hunger in 2023. I call on investors that while Africa remains a key focus, they should not forget South Asia!

And more than one-third of the world’s population - 2.8 billion people – could not afford a healthy diet in 2022.

This year’s report estimates that 582 million people will be chronically undernourished at the end of the decade, more than half of them in Africa, and in South Asia.

But among these negative statistics, there is some cause for hope.

Notable progress has been made on reducing hunger in South America due to strong political commitment – this is the number one push! 

To bring the potential of agrifood systems to scale we will need to significantly increase financing and investment in the coming years.

To meet the SDG Targets 2.1 and 2.2 to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition requires increased and more cost-effective financing.

Innovative, inclusive and equitable solutions are needed to bridge the financing gap and scale up financing for food security and nutrition.

The FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative, and its annual Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum, is a very good example of an innovative solution designed to bridge the financing gap in an inclusive and equitable way, targeting Small Island Developing States (SIDS), least developed (LDC)and land locked countries (LLDC) – which make up approximately 90 FAO Members.

The Hand-in-Hand Initiative has grown steadily since 2019, now consisting of 72 member countries from across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as five regional initiatives.

At last year’s Hand in Hand Investment forum, we saw the growth in the demand for agrifood investments increase to over USD 16 billion, with some USD 3.4 billion now committed or in the process of negotiation.

This year’s Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum will again serve as a unique platform for the 29 Hand-in-Hand countries and five regional initiatives to present their agrifood investment opportunities to potential investors, scientists and technical experts, as well as financial institutions, private sector, foundations, donors and other development partners.  

These investment plans with a science-based approach, which are both government owned and led, have been prepared using Hand-in-Hand’s innovative tools, including the Geospatial Platform and advanced socio-economic methodologies to better target bottlenecks and unlock agricultural potential using a territorial approach. We are working with traditional agriculture but need to change our traditional thinking.

The net impact of the Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum is forging new partnerships to increase financing and investment in agrifood systems transformation at country level, to reduce poverty, improve food security and reduce inequality.  The UN Food Systems Summit held in 2021 created momentum, but what is the impact?

The Hand-in-Hand Initiative, and this Investment Forum, is making a significant contribution to FAO’s mandate and is helping to deliver on our Strategic Framework 2022-31 to support the 2030 Agenda,

Through the transformation to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems for the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. 

Dear Friends,

I encourage all of you to take an active role, to participate in the presentations of the government investment plans, and to engage in bilateral meetings. And more important is to follow up on new action and prioritize your investment plans with a specific enabling policy. We are only matchmakers, but if you want the marriage to continue you have to work on it!

FAO is proud and committed to support Members for increased financing and innovation to deliver Good Food for All, for Today and Tomorrow.

Investment is the game-changer to leverage change!

Thank you.