Parliamentarians gather for virtual dialogue on COVID-19 responses
Welcoming the participants to the discussion, Marcela Villareal, Director of Partnerships at FAO, emphasized the importance of parliamentarians as key development actors.
Parliamentarians from around the world met on June 18 for the first in a series of virtual dialogues on parliamentary action for gender equality and resilient food systems in response to Covid-19. These dialogues, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Oxfam, will offer parliamentarians a platform to share their experiences on various topics across regions.
In the first webinar of the series, parliamentarians from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean had an opportunity to exchange lessons learned and share good practices on gender-sensitive approaches to food security and nutrition during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
Welcoming the participants to the discussion, Marcela Villareal, Director of Partnerships at FAO, emphasized the importance of parliamentarians as key development actors. Given their legislative, budgetary and policy oversight responsibilities, parliamentarians play a central role in establishing an enabling political and legislative environment which can lead to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 2, Zero Hunger and SDG 5, Gender Equality. The COVID19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated how important it is to strengthen multilateral and multi-stakeholder cooperation and action to fully address the challenges we face.
Jocelyn Brown Hall, FAO’s Deputy Regional Representative for Africa, echoed these sentiments, agreeing that regulations, laws and policies are the key to creating an enabling environment to empower women, end poverty and hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. She referenced the meeting of African Ministers of Agriculture, jointly convened by the African Union Commission and FAO in April, where the ministers, mindful of Africa’s commitment to end hunger by 2025, pledged to redouble their efforts and concentrate on actions which would ensure food security and nutrition for all citizens, both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tacko Ndiaye, Senior Gender Officer with FAO, laid the groundwork for the discussion with a sobering presentation on the current state of food security and nutrition in the world and its implications for gender equality. She highlighted broad policy recommendations that could mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural women and girls, stressing the need to ensure women’s participation in social protection interventions, agri-food value chains and formal and informal networks which contribute to the COVID-19 response.