9th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs (STI Forum 2024), Briefing to Member States and Stakeholders, ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters

Thank you for giving me the floor.

In the past years FAO has worked closely with DESA and the UN Inter Agency Task Team to support the Science, Technology and Innovation Forum. We will do so again this year, especially as SDG 2 is under review here and at other ECOSOC meetings, including the High-Level Political Forum in July.

More than 3.1 billion people in the world cannot afford healthy diets. 2.4 billion people moderately or severely food insecure. And up to 783 million people chronically undernourished. At the same time, agrifood systems continue to exert pressure on ecosystems.

FAO is emphasizing in these forums the importance of making agrifood systems more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable so they can deliver affordable healthy diets while reducing impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss and the degradation of natural resources.

This is a possible goal, as experiences in different countries show. But only if we invest in STI, adapting it to local contexts and needs, complementing traditional and Indigenous knowledge, and identifying and mitigating risks.

To achieve this, FAO is working with governments and partners to build capacities, bring STI to family farmers, land and aquatic food producers, to support responses in emergency situations, to create and strengthen agricultural innovation systems, and to support an enabling environment at the local, national and global scales that will allow these efforts to flourish.

Our work is guided by the FAO Science and Innovation Strategy. The strategy is a key tool for the implementation of our Strategic Framework, which identifies Innovation and technology as two of the four accelerators to enhance effectiveness of FAO’s programmes and operations.

Madam/Mister Chair,

The STI Forum offers an opportunity in itself to advance possible solutions and ways forward that Governments can consider. We are supporting the formal session and planning side-events to deepen the discussion between STI and SDGT2 and facilitate the participation of youth voices through the World Forum.

We also believe that there is great value in bridging the conversations that take place in New York and Rome, where we are working to leverage STI to improve agrifood systems and achieve Zero Hunger. We will continue to explore these opportunities, sharing at the STI Forum what we are learning from successful experiences in the field of food and agriculture, and bringing lessons from here to Rome, through events such as the Science and Innovation Forum, that is organized annually as part of the World Food Forum.

Thank you for your attention.