Factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and ongoing conflicts have led to nearly one billion people going hungry last year, he said.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has warned that the conflict in Ukraine this year will put an additional 95 million people in extreme poverty and 50 million in severe famine.
Already falling short
“Honestly, we have already fallen to achieve our food security goals, by 2020. Read also : Hajj tech is changing pilgrimage. However, the situation is now critical,” Mr Shahid said.
“The shock of multiple global crises has weakened our institutions, our economy and challenged our ability to respond effectively.”
He emphasized that despite this gloomy picture, the countries could not lose hope. They must mobilize collectively to alleviate global hunger and malnutrition, as well as address the factors that cause them.
Mr Shahid also highlighted the need to prioritize food security in the least developed countries of the world, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states, whose citizens are “typically forced to spend a larger share of their income on basic needs,” including food, and are therefore disproportionately affected by rising food prices. “
Interconnectedness, not isolation
These countries must also be helped to achieve a sustainable transformation of their food systems, in line with the recommendations of the UN Food Systems Summit held last year. Read also : Three nations, one goal: continued freedom.
Mr Shahid said as countries implement more sustainable and environmentally responsible food practices, they must also address food security as part of a broader multilateral agenda that recognizes both the link to current challenges and the futility for them. to solve unilaterally or in isolation. .
Food systems must be able to provide affordable healthy diets that are sustainable and inclusive. They must also provide a powerful driving force to put an end to hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.
“Among the actions we must take immediately include the scale of climate resilience across food systems, strengthening the food environment and changing consumer behavior to promote dietary patterns with positive impacts on human health and the environment,” he said.
“Resolving food security also requires us to stop conflicts and pandemics that disrupt supply chains; to repair our relationship with nature, and to ensure sustainable agriculture; and to strengthen the global institutions working for poverty and hunger solve.
A ‘critical moment’
Mr Shahid convened the high-level special event alongside the World Food Safety Committee, and the UN Secretary-General Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance. Read also : Jim Cramer says investors can hide in these three recession-proof packaged food stocks.
In a video message to the session, UN chief António Guterres praised the partners for joining forces in what he called “this critical moment”, noting that the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity in recent have doubled in two years.
“We are facing a real risk of multiple famines this year. And next year could be even worse. But we can avoid this catastrophe if we act now,” Mr Guterres said.
The Secretary-General stressed the need to directly integrate Ukrainian food production, in Russia food and fertilizers, into world markets, and to keep global trade open.
He also called for tackling the financial crisis in developing countries, and urgently opening up resources to improve social protection and support smallholder farmers to increase productivity and self-confidence.
Countries also need to transform food systems at every level to put affordable, healthy and sustainable nutrition within reach of everyone, everywhere.
