FAO Chief Economist presentation of SG Reports at UNGA Second Committee – 'Eradicating rural poverty' and 'Agriculture development, food security, and nutrition'

 

77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Second Committee

Agenda items 22 (e) and 24 

Secretary-General report on Eradicating Rural Poverty for Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 

and

Secretary-General report on Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition

Presented by Mr Maximo Torero Cullen, FAO Chief Economist 

 

Thank you, Chair.

Distinguished delegates, 

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the honor to present  today the two Secretary General Reports on behalf of FAO and DESA, consolidated in close collaboration with  the rest of the UN System, notably the SG Report on Eradicating rural poverty to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the SG report on Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition. 

The SG Report on Eradicating rural poverty to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reviews the state of rural poverty in different dimensions, highlights the intrinsic link between rural poverty and inequalities and proposes policy recommendations to address them. 

It presents alarming trends on rural poverty. 

Extreme poverty largely remains a rural phenomenon. More than 80 percent of the extreme poor and 84 per cent of those in acute multidimensional poverty live in rural areas. The situation was not positive even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2015 and 2018, the share of the rural poor in the total population of those living in poverty rose by more than two percentage points. 

The majority of rural poor depend on agrifood systems and natural resources for their livelihoods, making them more exposed to the overexploitation of natural resources and climate change. For example, 60 per cent of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa is related to agrifood systems. Globally, two thirds of those living in extreme poverty are engaged in agriculture.

In terms of multidimensionality, the rural poor face, inter alia, social exclusion and geographical remoteness, resulting in low levels of access to education, health and social protection, and higher food insecurity and nutrition rates than in urban areas. The rural poor also own few assets, including land, and have inadequate access to productive resources, decent work opportunities and basic infrastructure.

This is exacerbated by the structural inequalities that exist in rural areas. In this regard, the report notes with concern that global income inequality increased for the first time in 20 years. Evidence shows that high inequality levels undermine the impact of economic growth in reducing poverty and prevent rural poor from participating to and benefiting from development, disproportionally affecting rural women, rural working migrants, family farmers and indigenous peoples. Evidence also shows that addressing income and wealth inequalities within and among countries is paramount in the fight against extreme poverty.

COVID-19 reversed hard-won gains in poverty reduction at the global level, disproportionately affecting the most socially and economically vulnerable populations, in particular women, young people and the poorest households. The impact of the pandemic was significant in both rural and urban areas. Furthermore, the poorest and those in vulnerable situations, the majority of whom live in rural areas, are recovering their income and job losses at a slower rate than the richest.

Economic slowdowns and rising food and energy prices have a disproportional negative impact on the most vulnerable segments of the society, increasing already existing structural inequalities and often failing to comprehensively reach the extreme poor with measures supporting their livelihood recovery, particularly in rural areas. 

To reverse this scenario, the report calls for increasing ambitions and for transformative action to achieve SDG 1 in rural areas. It offers policy recommendations that Member States may wish to consider such as stepping up efforts to eradicate rural poverty, including by addressing income and wealth inequalities within and among countries. The report calls for immediate action to prevent people from falling into poverty in the short term, alongside longer-term, inclusive, rights-based, multisectoral and sustainable policies that address structural inequalities in rural areas. 

In this context, it underscores the urgency of scaling up investments in transforming agrifood systems, promoting inclusive and sustainable low-emission industrialization pathways; ensuring access to productive assets, decent work opportunities and social protection, quality education and health, improved rural infrastructure, digital and financial services; ensuring these investments reach family farmers and small-scale producers, rural women and youth, migrants and indigenous peoples; and, improving disaggregated data collection to better inform policy making to accelerate the eradication of rural poverty and achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report also recognizes the importance of agriculture and food systems in promoting rural livelihoods, decent work and empowered communities, in line with the Food Systems Summit, and recommends, inter alia, that efforts to transform agrifood systems along the rural/urban continuum include the poorest, and enable equitable access to land, water resources and markets, including through the promotion of sustainable low-emission industrialization pathways in line with national mitigation and adaptation priorities.

Dear Chair,

Distinguished Delegates, 

I am now drawing your attention on the SG report on Agriculture Development Food Security and Nutrition.

The thematic focus of this year report is on how transformation towards resilient and sustainable agri-food systems can mitigate effects of recurrent crises, maximize synergies and reduce trade-offs across interventions. 

The report reviews progress and challenges in implementing SDG2 and connected the targets across SDGs, including analysing the impact of COVID-19, shocks, disasters, and conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, on agrifood systems capacity to deliver results across social, economic and environmental dimensions. It also presents lessons learned and emerging good practices, and provides recommendations for decisions makers’ consideration. 

The global pandemic, with measures taken to contrast its spread, have exposed the fragility of agrifood systems. Recovery efforts are not currently at scale to bring the world back on track to achieve food security and good nutrition for all. Contrary to what we hoped for as the pandemic was more under control and restrictive measures were unleashed, numbers of world hunger continued to rise, reflecting the persistence of structural inequality in economic recovery within and among countries. 

In 2021 people facing hunger were 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more than prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The prevalence of undernourishment also increased by almost 2% since the beginning of the pandemic and 3.1 billion people could not afford to eat healthy diets. 

The nutritional situation is also alarming, with some progress in stunting, wasting and overweight of children, but it is believed that the situation could be worse than evidence suggests, as more accurate data post-pandemic are still to be made available. 

Evidence reviewed in the report also shows that shocks, disasters and conflicts often intersect, requiring new and more comprehensive ways for addressing challenges. Conflicts, a major driver of acute food insecurity, increased by 88 percent between 2018 and 2021.

Structural inequalities still persist in food systems and the share of poverty, hunger and food insecurity is highest for those depending on agriculture for their living. Particularly exposed are small-scale food producers, including family farmers and agricultural workers, whose income and opportunities are lower than those of medium and large scale farmers, with women and youth even more exposed to instability and facing lower opportunities. 

Access to resources is also unequal, with land increasingly concentrated in largest farms, representing the 1 per cent of the total and operating in over the 70 per cent of arable land, while, on the other hand, small-scale farms, often family farmers’ farms, representing 84 per cent, operate on only the 12 per cent of the available land. 

The cost of healthy diets increased steadily, with an estimated 80 per cent of African people unable to afford it. Inequality in wealth distribution also make it unlikely for small-scale food producers to benefit from the rise of food prices, while, instead, increased energy and inputs prices have a negative impact on their livelihood. 

On all indicators, women are more exposed to poverty and food insecurity, due to their lower opportunities, less access to productive resources, and lower average income relative to men. 

While the youth population is expected to triple by 2050, the rural sector is aging due to lack of opportunities for young people and insufficient investment to support their potential to innovate in rural economies. 

Some progress has been made on natural resource sustainable management, particularly on water and forest. However, progress lag behind for targets related to genetic diversity, and restoration of ecosystems.  

Climate change is impacting production capability, and efforts were not sufficient to substantially improve the contribution of agriculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change. Change in rainfalls and other increasingly frequent extreme weather events threaten in particular the livelihood of the most vulnerable, particularly in rural and remote areas. 

The report also presents available evidence on trends related to trade and investments highlighting challenges faced by small and medium size enterprises, with lower access to investments, and lower capacity to face challenges through innovation and digitalization of business. While global trade was proven resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic, with only short-term disruptions of value chains, investments in agriculture decreased as resources were diverted to address pandemic-related needs. 

Recent analysis and data presented in the report confirm how the  multiple implications of the Ukraine war for agricultural trade, food prices, food supply, availability and affordability of food, as well as access to inputs, energy and other key productive resources, are threatening the livelihood of over one billion people world-wide. The war has also impacted the capacity of countries, especially developing countries, to mobilize the required resources to support economic recovery an implement measures for sustaining livelihood of the most vulnerable segments of society. 

Dear Chair,

Distinguished Delegates,

The report outlines that reversing these trends requires acknowledging the interconnected economic, social and environmental impacts of the world’s agrifood systems, and the need for raising ambition and intensifying efforts to achieve sustainable and resilient food systems. 

It is only with comprehensive, cross-cutting, and multi-stakeholder approaches that we can leave no one behind to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 is not out of reach, and the report highlights few areas for decision makers’ consideration. We need to:

Ensure measures are in place to ensure correction of trade distortions/disruptions and improved availability of agriculture commodities and inputs,

Increase resilience by protecting, sustainably managing and restoring natural base, biodiversity and ecosystems.

Build resilience of systems and people through capacity building, dissemination of good practices for adaptive agriculture, investing in data-led forecasting, and comprehensive mapping, as well as invest in science, innovation, and promote digitalization.  

Address gaps in early warning and early action systems, increase preparedness and strengthen linkages between humanitarian and development assistance and address inequalities as structural causes of recurrent crisis. 

Empower the rural actors, particularly women, youth, indigenous peoples and small-scale food producers, including family farmers, improving their access to knowledge, resources, assets and services, and safeguarding their livelihood through targeted policies and interventions.  

Improve availability and access to reliable and disaggregated data for informed and evidence-based decisions, including for promoting investments, maximizing contribution of agriculture to inclusive economic growth.

Commitments of countries, presented at the UN Food System Summit show the raised ambition and their consolidation saw the engagement of the ones concerned across food systems.  Efforts to translate those commitments into concrete actions on the ground would be of paramount importance.

Technical expertise from FAO, the UN family and their partners can help accelerate the transformation through low-cost, high-impact interventions. 

FAO looks forward to supporting the negotiations of the resolutions in the coming weeks and remains at your service to provide technical expertise and advice in developing this important conversation. 

I thank you.