With agrifood systems facing unprecedented threats, multi-hazard disaster and climate risk reduction for resilience building must be prioritized

Convened by the President of the General Assembly, the High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 took place in New York headquarters from 18 to 19 May. It was proceeded by the 8th Meeting of the UN Senior Leadership Group on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience and several “Risk Reduction Hub” events, which took place on 17 May.

At the two-day event, global leaders adopted by consensus a political declaration with calls to action across the Framework's four priorities for action, reaffirming their commitment to reduce disaster risk and build resilience within and across sectors, with a renewed sense of urgency.

The high-level meeting convened against the backdrop of a climate crisis that is driving increasingly recurrent extreme weather events, manmade conflicts – many of them protracted over time – and economic slowdowns and downturns – including the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the food, fertilizer and energy price hikes on the heels of the war in Ukraine. Together, this has been driving up chronic and acute hunger levels at a time when there are only seven agricultural seasons left before the 2030 deadline to meet pledge of a world without hunger.

The FAO delegation at the high-level meeting – led by Rein Paulsen, Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience – discussed the multifaceted risks facing agrifood systems, and made a call for holistic responses that take into account the interdependencies between systems and cross-sectoral collaboration on disaster risk reduction (DRR), to better safeguard global food security and nutrition and build resilience and protect livelihoods from future shocks, whether market, weather, or conflict-induced.

A changing landscape of risks and hazards calls for proactive, preventive and anticipatory actions

The COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and conflicts have created significant food security challenges worldwide in the past years. These interconnected drivers of food insecurity call for equally crosscutting, multidimensional responses. This was a guiding theme during the UNDRR Risk Reduction Hub event ‘Risk-informed agrifood systems in a changing landscape,’ where FAO’s Director of Emergencies and Resilience spoke of the need for further coordination and collaboration among development, humanitarian, peace, and climate actors to better understand risks and hazards facing agrifood systems.

“Risk-proofing the Sustainable Development Goals requires advancing our understanding of risk, which can guide the design of the solutions necessary for systemic resilience,” Paulsen said. This is why FAO promotes a comprehensive risk management approach to building resilient agricultural livelihoods and agrifood systems, he explained. These FAO efforts span four pillars  – (i) strengthening risk information systems; (ii) strengthening risk governance; (iii) promoting resilience investment; and (iv) enhancing preparedness and anticipatory action capacities in agriculture.

Tackling the root causes of food crises through disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation measures

Speaking at another UNDRR Risk Reduction Hub event, co-organized by FAO, UNDRR and other partners, the discussions on ‘Disaster risk reduction in countries affected by multidimensional crises,’ heard Paulsen as a lead respondent. He called on moving beyond siloes to address systemic risk, discussing the implications in protracted crisis settings to move the needle on tangible change.

Underscoring that the latest Global Report on Food Crises has, for the fourth year in a row, shown an increase in the number of people in acute food insecurity, Paulsen recognized how the impacts of disasters can compound pre-existing vulnerabilities, including affecting those still recovering from recent disasters.

Highlighting the encouraging actions put forward by panelists from Pakistan, Mozambique, and Ethiopia, in terms of policy frameworks, coordination mechanisms, and new capabilities, including early warning systems, Paulsen recognized that tangible progress is being made and pathways exist to make progress on the implementation of the Sendai Framework. He asked panelists how the international community can move to a system that is more driven by context and that is responsive to realities on the ground. He also spoke of the importance of the international funding architecture and how it has enabled or constrained actions that countries are putting in place.

In closing, Paulsen stated that “if on the one hand we understand and agree that we have these multidimensional challenges which need to be addressed, how we need to function differently is at the heart of those challenges.”

Recognizing the difficulty of mobilizing adequate resources for disaster risk reduction at scale, he stated that it is indispensable for reducing vulnerability and making an impactful difference over time. We have to see how we can adjust the funding architecture to respond to the realities , he said. Lastly, Paulsen framed the importance of action at both the household and farm levels.

Agricultural livelihoods and rural communities bear the brunt of shocks and disasters

In food crisis contexts, more than 70 per cent of affected people live in rural communities, and yet, only 4 per cent of all humanitarian response funding that goes into those protracted emergency settings supports agriculture. This is even though agriculture and the billions of farmers who play a central role in keeping the world fed are oftentimes the ones most affected by disasters.

Creating and implementing effective policies involves knowing which disasters strike with the greatest impact and where. In this spirit, and ahead of COP28, FAO will release a report on the global picture of losses and damages in the agriculture sector due to disasters, pointing to the transformations necessary for resilient agrifood systems. 

Rethinking risk management and governance. Why wait to respond until disaster happens?

FAO believes that efficient humanitarian response requires anticipation, which is why FAO advocates for changing the way we manage disasters through anticipatory actions, using risk analysis and forecasts to trigger interventions before a crisis reaches untenable levels or becomes far too costly to tackle. For farmers and rural communities, early warning signals can make the difference between a shock and a fully-fledged hunger emergency. As such, FAO is calling for more attention to agrifood systems and DRR in emergencies, as it is the most effective and dignified response in food crisis contexts and must be part of the wider effort to rescue the SDGs.

Speaking to this point at a multi-stakeholder panel discussion on managing disasters and risk governance fit for the 21st century was Wirya Khim, FAO Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer and DRR Lead. She touched on how investing in resilience of the agriculture sector “both depends on and influences the resilience of other sectors.” Investing in risk-informed agriculture, therefore, stands to leverage co-benefits across all SDGs, saving lives today and safeguarding livelihoods tomorrow.

Related links and publications

• FAO at the High-level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for DRR
• Summary report from the High-level Meeting
• Agriculture on the proving grounds: damages and losses (interactive report)
• Anticipatory action: Changing the way we manage disasters (publication)
• Disaster risk reduction at farm level: Multiple benefits, no regrets (multi-country study)
• FAO Data in Emergencies (DIEM) Hub
• FAO’s work on emergency response and resilience building