Asia-Pacific countries discuss ways of improving nutrition, lives and livelihoods in the wake of the global pandemic
- Initiatives during Indonesia’s G20 Presidency are expected to better support economic growth in the Asia-Pacific Region
Dhaka/Rome/Jakarta – Ministers and high-level delegates from across Asia and the Pacific met today with a focus on improving nutrition, lives and livelihoods in the wake of the global pandemic, while taking aim at ongoing climate and severe weather-related threats, and tackling diseases and pests that are affecting crops and livestock in the world’s most populous region. Improved ecosystem responses in the Pacific Islands is another key topic.
The 36th Asia and Pacific Regional Conference (APRC), convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and hosted by the Government of Bangladesh, is taking place in the capital, Dhaka today.
Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo attended the conference virtually representing Indonesia as the Head of Delegation. In his speech he highlighted the lessons learnt from the global COVID-19 pandemic and stressed the importance of building a resilient and sustainable national agri-food system.
“The global COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of building a resilient and sustainable national food and agriculture system, said Limpo.
The Minister also added that in the context of Indonesia’s G20 presidency, the food and agriculture system development would focus on three priorities, namely nuilding resilient and sustainable food and agriculture systems, encouraging the creation of open and predictable cross-border trade, and developing agricultural entrepreneurship and digitalization.
“We believe that this proposal will contribute to creating better economic growth in the region”, stressed Limpo.
Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina highlighted her country’s achievement of self-sufficiency for several essential foods and noted that agriculture remains the “backbone” of the economy, providing livelihoods for 40 percent of the labour force.
She appealed for “achieving food security and nutrition in the real sense,” and she called for collaboration among countries in the region in areas such as education, biotechnology and green investments.
The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, attending the regional conference in person, acknowledged the toll the global pandemic has inflicted on lives and livelihoods of the people of Asia and the Pacific. He noted there was a long way to go for the region to eliminate hunger and improve nutrition, pointing to a FAO report from last year that found 40 percent of the population were unable to afford a healthy, nutritious diet.
Reversing many years of progress, hunger in Asia and the Pacific is on the rise again, and inequalities are increasing, particularly between rural and urban populations, while too often women and youth are being left behind. “The pandemic has forced us to reconsider our priorities and approaches and has highlighted the importance of more sustainable and resilient societies, as well as of the urgency to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals to secure food, health, education, a healthy environment, and a decent life for all,” the Director-General said in his Statement to Conference.
This has led to a movement to transform the region’s agrifood systems and make them more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, he added.
Scaling up digitalization in food and agriculture sectors to transform agrifood systems
A key area of interest in this APRC is the digitalization of agriculture and food processes that are sweeping across Asia and the Pacific, and the potential they have for the region and the world, if scaled up further, to help transform agrifood systems in ways that also benefit smallholder farmers. This would support achieving the “Four Betters”, as set out in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31: Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment and a Better life for all – leaving no one behind.
FAO has been a leader in promoting digitalization and innovation in agricultural processes – from producers, to processers, transporters, retailers and consumers – through FAO’s 1,000 Digital Villages Initiative, as one prime example, and the creation of a SIDS Solutions Platform as another.
“The 1,000 Digital Villages Initiative aims to convert villages across the world into digital hubs to support the acceleration of rural transformation,” Qu said, noting that the initiative has been rolled out in 15 countries across the Asia-Pacific region and will facilitate smallholder producers’ access to knowledge and markets, while reducing the digital gap, including the gender and rural divides.
This “will leverage the entrepreneurial spirit of youth and women in the region by creating an enabling environment, and supporting the development of national e-agriculture strategies and digital tools and services. And I have high expectations for this region because there are so many ‘champion countries’ and you already have digital value, digital governance and digital economy in rural areas,” the Director-General said during his statement to the conference.
At its headquarters, FAO is also hosting a Coordination Hub to shepherd follow-up actions on the ground after the UN Food Systems Summit 2021.
While the Asia and Pacific Regional Conference is convened every two years to seek the views and direction of the governments of FAO Member Nations in the region, it has expanded to become more inclusive of other actors, such as civil society organizations and the private sector, both of which participated in #APRC36.