Session 13 Ensuring Food Security, Sustainably: What Role for Trade?

Tuesday, 29 September 2020

Time: 3:00-4.30 p.m.

Organized by FAO, IISD, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, this session will seek to explore how policies and interventions shaping trade and markets can contribute to food security and sustainability, in the context of emerging challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past decade, international agricultural and food markets have witnessed a number of changes and challenges which impact both domestic and international markets. At the same time, new trends and phenomena are emerging which are set to affect progress on Agenda 2030 and the ability of governments to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. Trade patterns are likely to be affected by climate change (direct impact), but trade itself can constitute an adaptation strategy. More recently, the COVID­19 pandemic has adversely affected food security, including through its effects on trade and markets.

Key questions:

How can policy-makers reconcile the need to adapt to climate change with the objective of ensuring food security, more sustainably?
How can trade in goods and services contribute to food security in the context of the COVID- 19 challenge?
How can trade policy frameworks better address food system shocks?
In the second portion of the session, the floor will open for a moderated audience discussion guided by the question:

How can governments and other actors best take practical steps forward to ensure trade and trade policy contributes towards food security and sustainability?

Programme
 
Moderator
Ahmad Mukhtar, Economist - Trade and Food Security, FAO
 
Speakers
Federica Angelucci, Senior Consultant, Inclusive Agribusiness Systems, ITC Alliances for Action
 
H.E Cheryl Spencer, Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva
 
Jonathan Hepburn, Senior Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
 
Martina Bozzola, Senior Research Associate and Lecturer Economics of Agriculture, Food and Health, Agricultural and Resource Economics (ZHAW) & (QUB)

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For more details and programme, please click here.