UN Food Systems Summit

25 Sep 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

Posted at 11:24h in Daily current-affairs by ishtiyak khan 0 Comments

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Context:
 The UN Food Systems Summit is taking place in New York.
 It will seek to set the stage for global food systemstransformation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. It is envisioned that the Summit will have objectives and outcomes including to:
1. Raise awareness of food systems’ centrality to the entire sustainable development agenda, and the urgency of transforming food systems, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic.
2. Align stakeholders around a common understanding and narrative of a food system framework as a foundation for
concerted action, making food and food systems a more widespread issue for advocacy and action to achieve the 2030
Agenda.
3. Recognize the need for inclusivity and innovation in food systems governance and action.
4. Motivate and empower stakeholders who support food systems transformation through the development of improved tools, measurement, and analysis.
5. Catalyze, accelerate, and enlarge bold action for the transformation of food systems by all communities, including countries, cities, companies, civil society, citizens, and food producers. Five action areas to help inform the transitions needed to realise the vision of the 2030 agenda have emerged from the Summit process. These include:
1. Nourish all people.
2. Boost nature-based solutions.
3. Advance equitable livelihoods, decent work and empowered communities.
4. Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.
5. Support means of implementation.
Background:
Originally announced on 16 October 2019 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the UN Food systems Summit, including a Pre-Summit, was conceived following conversations with the joint leadership of the three Rome-based United Nations agencies – the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme – at the High-level Political Forum in July 2019.
About the Summit:
 The Food Systems Summit is convened as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
 The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies to some degree on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems.
 Guided by five Action Tracks, the Summit will bring together key players from the worlds of science, business, policy, healthcare and academia, as well as farmers.
Why food systems?
The term “food system” refers to the constellation of activities involved in producing, processing, transporting and consuming food.
 Food systems touch every aspect of human existence.
 The health of our food systems profoundly affects the health of our bodies, as well as the health of our environment, our economies and our cultures.
 When they function well, food systems have the power to bring us together as families, communities and nations.
Concerns/Challenges:
 Too many of the world’s food systems are fragile, unexamined and vulnerable to collapse, as millions of people around the globe have experienced firsthand during the COVID-19 crisis.
 When our food systems fail, the resulting disorder threatens our education, health and economy, as well as human rights, peace and security. As in so many cases, those who are already poor or marginalized are the most vulnerable.