23rd Session of the CEPA on Agenda Item 3 – Institutional aspects of the theme of the 2024 session of the ECOSOC and the 2024 HLPF on sustainable development: New governance[...]

23rd Session of the CEPA on Agenda Item 3 - Institutional aspects of the theme of the 2024 session of the ECOSOC and the 2024 HLPF on sustainable development: New governance insights to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and eradicate poverty

Dubravka Bojic, Programme Officer, FAO

17/04/2024

Thank you, Mme Chair and the Committee, for the excellent paper and the rich and stimulating discussion on Monday morning!

Thank you also for giving me the opportunity to make remarks on behalf of FAO.

We have heard repeatedly over the last two days that not only we are not on track to achieve SDGs, but are reverting progress made.

Global hunger and moderate-or-severe food insecurity have both deteriorated since 2015, rising from 7.9% to 9.2% and from 21.7% to 29.6% respectively. The global hidden costs of our food exceed 10 trillion USD. The burden of this costs falls disproportionally on low-income countries primarily due to the impacts of poverty and undernourishment.

In its Recommendations and key messages, the Note by the Secretariat rightly mentions the importance of strengthening the references to individual SDGs in country-specific development strategies, visions and national development plans and emphasizing both economic growth and social policy support to fight hunger, poverty and climate action.

It is equally important to adopt a holistic and system approach that takes into account interlinkages between individual SDGs.

There is increased international consensus that agrifood systems transformation is critical to accelerate progress and realize the 2030 Agenda and all SDGs. Such desired transformation can only be achieved by capitalizing on knowledge, experience, and skills of a broad range of public and private actors from different sectors, with diverging interests, needs and capacities.

This requires finding appropriate and innovative governance and institutional arrangements for managing key trade-offs between increasing food and agriculture profitability while promoting healthier diets; eradicating poverty and supporting social equity and inclusion; and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources and climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience, as well as peace and security.

FAO understands governance as relating- to formal and informal rules, actors and processes by which collective action is taken - how decisions are made and implemented, and how different objectives and interests are balanced.

Recognizing the complexity of the challenges we face, applying systems approach helps mapping out different, interrelated components that produce multiple goals, identifying key drivers and the connections between them, and setting out most viable courses of action.

Mobilizing broad participation and partnerships with all stakeholders, as underlined in recommendation 5 is critical.

Therefore, there is a need to invest in strengthening cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder platforms for engagement to enable bottom-up, and participatory approaches that account for specific challenges faced by different actors and communities and strengthen effectiveness and sustainability of results.

Furthermore, ensuring market transparency and access to up-to-date and credible data could help reducing uncertainty and guiding informed policy decisions, particularly during periods of crises.

Repurposing agricultural support such as price incentives and subsidies could be a game-changer by optimizing the use of scarce public resources, to redirect it towards investments in public services for more sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems conducive to healthy lives for all.

There is also a need to strengthen multisectoral global governance structures, such as the Committee on World Food Security, that allow for meaningful and effective engagement, collaboration and contribution from sectors and actors, to ensure a just transition towards equitable agrifood systems.

To concretely support the transformation process, FAO has launched a Global Road Map for Achieving SDG2 without breaching the 1.5 C threshold, which proposes concrete actions for collective commitment to redefine and restructure the way we produce and consume food, while building on existing efforts to mitigate the effects and adapt to climate change.

FAO continues to support countries in strengthening the enabling environment and capacities to advancing change and empowering and engaging key stakeholders in particular small-scale producers, women and youth, and contributes to global, regional, and national partnerships and coalitions to realize the future we want.