NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 1 – The Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, Ambassador Maurizio Massari, chaired today in New York a meeting of the Group of Friends on Food Security with the goal to chart the way for future actions and partnerships. “We must remain united to achieve Sustainable Development Goal n. 2 and address the urgent needs of 828 millions hungry people in the world”, the Italian Mission said on Twitter.
Over 70 member States engaged in the meeting, attended by representatives from the three Rome-based agri-food UN Agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP), as well as international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. “Agrifood systems must be transformed to achieve SDG 2”, said Beth Bechdol, the Deputy Director of FAO and one of the panelist: “We have to create conditions for farmers to produce food for survival but invest even more in resilience to shocks”.
Massari stressed that acute food insecurity has reached unprecedented highs, affecting a record 349 million people on account of multiple factors: conflicts, economic shocks including food prices and inflation, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global impact of the war in Ukraine. “Today’s discussion aims to focus on action, on solutions, on partnerships to address this food crisis and opportunities to accelerate the transformation towards more resilient and sustainable food systems globally, with priority given to the most vulnerable people and the most vulnerable couuntries”.
The Italian Ambassador charted the year ahead: 2023 is a year of multilateral Summits, from the upcoming LDC 5 Conference in Doha to the SDG Summit and related Summits in September and COP 28, as well the upcoming and very important stock-taking moment of the UN Food Systems Summit, which will be a key milestone towards the SDG Summit in September. Food Security, said Massari, is a priority that Italy is continuing to promote in Rome, in New York, and in all partner Countries: “This year, especially, as ECOSOC Vice President and Chair of the Humanitarian Affairs Segment, we are working to ensure that Food Security will be at the center, fully addressed and mainstreamed. We are also planning, in this regard, a number of joint initiatives in partnership with all the relevant actors that will be announced soon”. (@OnuItalia)
