The data speaks clearly: if up to 783 million people in the world still live together with an unwanted and undesirable companion, that is, chronic hunger, it means that something is wrong. That more things are wrong. Starting with the systems that involve us all, whether we like it or not: food systems. We are all in this together, in one way or another, and therefore we all have a responsibility that we cannot turn our back on by pretending that it doesn’t concern us. This is the heart of the United Nations Summit on Food Systems (UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment) hosted in Rome from 24 to 26 July 2023 and organized by Italy together with the United Nations, the three UN agencies of the Roman agri-food hub ( FAO, IFAD and WFP) and the Food Systems Coordination Hub.
This latest summit served to take stock of the progress made since 2021, the year of the first Summit on Food Systems in which commitments were made to accelerate and consolidate their transformative power, for the full realization of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Sustainable food systems, which must guarantee everyone the possibility of eating in a healthy and sustainable way based on three criteria – economic, social and environmental – are subject to a series of potentially harmful stress factors in terms of effectiveness and sustainability . In no particular order: conflicts, climate change, degradation of ecosystems, economic instability and social disparities, high prices of food, fuel and fertilizers are, in fact, worsening hunger and malnutrition in many regions of the world, putting livelihoods at risk. of millions of people and their ability to have a healthy and nutritious diet.
The global food crisis, which has been talked about for about two years now, continues to claim victims, to undermine government budgets, to deepen economic disparities and the vulnerability of the most fragile, to make the future more uncertain for millions of people and erase the progress made up to a few years ago. The World Food Program implements various activities to build resilience and sustainable food systems, keeping the bar straight towards the goal of Zero Hunger in 2030, even if the seas we are sailing are increasingly threatening and turbulent. Indeed, we believe that resilience projects are part of the solution to the global food crisis. With recurring humanitarian emergencies, building resilience and strengthening food systems helps address the root causes of hunger, reducing humanitarian needs, improving livelihoods and, in a medium to long-term perspective, reducing the need for emergency relief . A USAID study on the 2011 Horn of Africa drought estimated that for every dollar invested in resilience, $3 would be saved in emergency humanitarian response, to stay within cost range.
I vantaggi per le popolazioni sarebbero immensi, a cominciare da un maggiore empowerment delle donne con un migliore accesso al cibo e ai mezzi di sostentamento, anche finanziari. Un sistema alimentare è una specie di percorso a tappe del cibo, dalla preparazione del terreno alla produzione a quando arriva sulle nostre tavole, un percorso che può interrompersi o perturbarsi in un qualsiasi punto mettendo in pericolo l’intero sistema. Negli ultimi dieci anni è aumentata la frequenza e l’intensità dei fenomeni meteorologici estremi – siccità, alluvioni, calore intenso, tempeste – mettendo in pericolo il funzionamento dei sistemi alimentari globali in tutte le tappe del percorso e, in ultima analisi, mettendo a rischio lo sviluppo globale, con un impatto potenzialmente devastante sui raccolti, sulla produttività del bestiame, sui prezzi alimentari. Circa 3,6 miliardi di persone vivono in contesti fortemente vulnerabili al cambiamento climatico, si tratta di oltre il 40 per cento della popolazione mondiale, mentre solo nel 2021 si sono attestate a 329 miliardi di dollari le perdite economiche dovute a disastri climatici.
We can therefore no longer ignore investments in climate solutions which, for example, allow more resilient crops, improve the use of water with more efficient irrigation systems or protect crops with innovative conservation and storage techniques. WFP’s activities, in this vast field, are multiple and touch on areas such as cash transfers, nutrition, gender disparities, social protection, innovation, school nutrition, to name a few.
In 2022, for example, we made approximately $3 billion in cash transfers to vulnerable populations in 72 countries. This type of assistance has direct benefits for local economies, as well as stimulating agricultural production and the creation of livelihoods and, last but not least, improving the diet of millions of people. WFP supports governments in programs to strengthen social safety nets, for example through school feeding programs with locally grown food or nutrition programmes. Our Food Assistance for Goods programs improve the lives of people in fragile contexts because they combine food assistance with activities that help in the prevention and adaptation to shocks, improving agricultural productivity and creating new livelihood strategies.
The strength of the WFP is to be present in the field in a widespread manner, often on the front line of climate crises or conflicts, in remote (and often dangerous) and fragile areas, where development partners who support national objectives are not always found long-term. Therefore, being present in the field and listening to the needs of the populations represents a precious advantage, because there is no standard response to the variety of problems. It is thanks to this agile, forward-thinking approach and continuous innovation efforts that, in 2022, we have reached 160 million people – a record in our six-decade history, with our emergency and development programmes, in addition 120 countries and territories.
In five Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger) WFP has been working for some years with governments and partners to strengthen the resilience and adaptation of communities in a context of ecosystem degradation, climate change and fragility of food systems. In direct coordination with communities in over 2,500 villages, we have rehabilitated 220,000 hectares of degraded land, created 2,500 hectares of vegetable gardens and built over 2,000 ponds, 60 wells and 250 water reservoirs. In Malawi, in 2022 the WFP supported 530,000 people with land, crop and livestock management techniques and with reforestation practices: among the successes of this type of assistance, also the fact that humanitarian needs decreased by 60 percent hundred. In Uganda, thanks to the promotion of sustainable agricultural techniques, post-harvest losses have been reduced by up to 98 percent, with a significant improvement in farmers’ incomes and food security. In Honduras, WFP connects smallholder farmers’ organizations with the public and private sectors, helping them improve supply channels with markets and other buyers.
If the 2021 Food Systems Summit initiated a global awareness of the need to transform current food systems, if this latest Summit aimed to take stock of the progress and challenges, if we agree that we want to have food systems inclusive and efficient, if we want to reduce food waste and losses through investments in communication, innovation, technologies and infrastructure, then inaction is no longer an option. There’s no point in looking the other way. Food systems are at the heart of our lives. Food systems, ultimately, are us.
Article published in The Map Report n.21, July/August 2023 edition.
Source: wfp.org
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