ROME/NEW YORK, JULY 20 – The United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit is taking shape with a full list of speakers representing governments, UN agencies a civil society representatives. The meeting will begin with the opening plenary at 09:00 CEST, Monday, July 26. The tentative agenda is available online.
Among the delegates due to participate are: Mario Draghi, Prime Minister of Italy and Katrin Jakobsdottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, H.R.H. Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Princess of Thailand, Beatriz Argimon, Vice President of Uruguay, the UN Secretary General António Guterres and his Deputy, Amina Mohammed, Karina Gould, Minister of Development of Canada and Jewel Bronaugh, US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. In attendance also María Juliana Ruiz, First Lady of Colombia, the Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Sabrina Elba, UN Goodwill Ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The Summit will also be supported by representatives from across UN agencies including: Inger Andersen, Chair, UN Task Force and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP), Qu Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gilbert Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women, Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Oceans, Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Thanawat Tiensin, CFS Chairperson and Permanent Representative of Thailand to FAO, IFAD and WFP, Gerda Verburg, Coordinator, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, and Naoko Yamamoto, Chairperson, UN Nutrition.
The UN Food Systems Summit was announced by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on World Food Day last October as a part of the Decade of Action for delivery on the SDGs by 2030. Its aim is to deliver progress on all 17 of the SDGs through a food systems approach, leveraging the interconnectedness of food systems to global challenges such as hunger, climate change, poverty and inequality. The Food Systems Pre-Summit is being held in Rome under the leadership of the Secretary-General and in partnership with the Government of Italy from July 26 to July 28 before the Summit in September. (@OnuItalia)
