World Risk Report 2015: Focus-Food Insecurity

World Risk Report 2015:

Focus: Food Insecurity

26 February 2016, German Mission, New York

 

 

Your Excellency Permanent Representative of Germany, Ambassador Harald Braun,

 

Your Excellency Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, Ambassaor Masud bin Momen

 

Distinguished panellists,

 

Esteemed colleagues,

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

 

I would like to begin by the thanking Germany and Bangladesh for organizing this event and for inviting FAO to participate. It is a great pleasure for FAO to be here today.

 

I would also like to congratulate UN University and the German “Alliance Development Works”, the authors of the World Risk Report 2015.

 

FAO welcomes the report, which is both timely and relevant, as the impact of Cyclone Winston in Fiji painfully reminds us.

 

The World Risk Report illustrates that food insecurity and disaster risk reinforce one another.

 

Disasters have shattering consequences on food security. On the other hand, food insecurity also increases the risk of disasters, many times leading to a vicious cycle in which poor farming families and fisherfolk move from one crisis to the next.

 

Food insecure people may be forced to take desperate measures to address immediate needs. Short-term relief may be found by selling productive assets, often compromising livelihoods and increasing future vulnerability.

 

Reducing disaster risk is, therefore, an important element to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

This is more and more important as we see have seen an increasing number of natural disasters worldwide over the last three decades. And it is of significant concern to agriculture because of the sector’s dependence on climate and because it is the main source of livelihoods and food security and nutrition for millions of poor rural families worldwide.

 

FAO recently launched a study on “The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security[1]”. The study highlights that over 20 percent of the total economic impact of disasters in developing countries is absorbed by the agriculture sector.

 

The consequences include damage to livelihoods of farmers and lower production and productivity.

 

In summary: disasters undermine efforts to end hunger, achieve sustainable agricultural development and build sustainable futures.

 

In this regard, FAO considers that supporting governments and local communities enhance the resilience of agriculture-based livelihoods a necessary condition to successfully promote food security and nutrition and to tackle rural poverty.

 

In fact, building resilience is one of FAO’s five strategic priorities. To reach this goal, FAO assists member countries in areas such as:

• Adopting and implementing legal, policy and institutional systems and regulatory frameworks for disaster risk reduction (DRR),
• Providing early warning against potential threats
• Reducing risks and vulnerabilities at household and community level, and,
• Strengthening the capacities of rural families to withstand impacts of crisis and to manage effective responses in the agriculture sector.

The World Risk Report also discusses the importance of strengthening socioeconomic structures in order to reduce disaster risk in rural areas.

 

To this end, FAO supports the mainstreaming of DRR and Food Security and Nutrition into development plans and policies at regional, national and local levels. This includes:

• Increasing the resilience of agro-ecosystems through sustainable land management approaches
• Enhancing socio-economic resilience through social protection
• Strengthening agricultural market governance and value chain development, and
• Improving insurance programmes and effective early warning systems.

 

As part of this work, FAO delivers technical assistance to countries that scored high on the World Risk Index. To name some examples, in 2014, plans of action for disaster risk reduction in agriculture were endorsed in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

 

In accomplishing our objectives, we work with a wide range of partners to ensure complementarities and draw upon comparative advantages.  They include regional, national and local organizations to support implementation, and NGOs and civil society to ensure community-level links.

 

On broader issues, we have been working closely with UNISDR on UN action planning on DRR for resilience building. Within the framework of the “Capacity for Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative”, the Organization works with other UN System bodies to provide coordinated and coherent DRR capacity development for Governments in countries at risk.

 

In closing I would like to reiterate that FAO welcomes the World Risk Report 2015, which brings to the forefront the causal link between food insecurity and vulnerability to disasters.

 

FAO endorses the call for action of The World Risk Report 2015 to achieve better food security, which in turn will contribute to increased resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises.

 

Thank you for your kind attention.