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Forty-first session of UN Committee on World Food Security inaugurated
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Wednesday, 15 October, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Rome
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fiogf49gjkf0d CFS 41, the 41st session of the Committee on World Food Security, the world’s foremost inclusive inter-governmental and multi-stakeholder platform for food security and nutrition, has opened.
The committee is expected to adopt a set of principles for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems that have been in development for the past two years.
“Progress against hunger continues,” said José Graziano da Silva, director general, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in his address to the CFS.
He cited FAO figures showing that about 805 million people are chronically undernourished in the world today, some 209 million less than in 1990-92.
“Food security is everyone’s business. It is a society, and not a government, that decides to eradicate hunger and achieve food security. Political commitment and leadership from governments is the first step,” the FAO chief said.
“However, civil society, the private sector and other non-state actors also need to embrace this goal. At the global level, the CFS promotes an enabling environment for this to happen,” he added.
Reading out an address to the CFS by United Nations’ secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the organisation’s assistant secretary-general, Thomas Gass, said, “The CFS’ focus on knowledge and expertise, on rights and effective multi-stakeholder dialogues and partnership is advancing our shared work to realise my vision of a world with zero hunger.”
“Since its establishment the CFS has envisaged a future without hunger, and I share that vision. A focus on rights, on sustainable waste-free food systems and on responsible, accountable collaboration between stakeholders would help us tackle root causes of food and nutrition insecurity,” Ban added.
CFS chair Gerda Verburg said that reports on food insecurity and malnutrition emphasised the key role played by responsible and sustainable investments in agriculture and the food system.
“This is why we have negotiated principles for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems, which are on the agenda for endorsement at this session of CFS,” she added.
“These would foster not only more, but better investment in agriculture and food systems as well to meet the challenge of sustainable global food and nutrition security for all,” Verburg said.
In her address, Ertharin Cousin, executive director, World Food Programme (WFP), said that the CFS session was taking place at a time when the world was increasingly becoming fragile.
“An unprecedented number of shocks, stresses and-ever-more complex-crises now threaten food and nutrition security, repeatedly proving that without stability, the fourth dimension of food security (food systems) can quickly collapse, sometimes in a matter of weeks, to humanitarian crisis, setting back years of progress in hunger reduction,” she added.
In his statement at the inauguration of CFS 41, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) vice-president Michel Mordasini noted how investing into rural transformation and smallholder farming was pivotal to achieving national and global food and nutrition security, as well as to ending poverty.
Policy roundtables First roundtable The first of two policy roundtables at CFS 41 focussed on the issue of food losses and waste, which currently amount to one-third of the food produced worldwide.
Topics included the need to identify the causes of food losses and waste through an integrated perspective along the food chain and to consider any interventions as part of the whole, not in isolation.
Participants were expected to debate the findings of a scientific report by the High-level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE).
They were also to discuss the technical, economic and cultural dimensions of such waste and losses, as well as ways to curb the negative impact on food security and nutrition.
Improved labelling and other forms of information for producers and consumers are among the measures to curb losses and waste identified by the HLPE.
Second roundtable The second roundtable dealt with the increasingly critical, but often not duly recognised, contribution made by fish to food security and to healthy diets, as specified in an HLPE report.
Farmed fish production has increased twelvefold over the last three decades, and is one of the fastest-growing food production sectors, both in small- and large-scale systems.
Most of the fishers or fish farmers, fish processing and/or trading people live in developing countries, earn low incomes, and often depend on informal work.
They need decent work and social protection and gender-sensitive approaches. A very high number of female workers is engaged in fish processing and in informal small-scale fish trading operations.
Governance is particularly important to determine access to fisheries resources, integrity of fishery resources and distribution of fish benefits.
The HLPE report stressed the importance of international partnerships and initiatives on oceans and fish to better link fish production growth, sustainability and food security and nutrition.
CFS participants highlighted the importance of the Voluntary Guidelines on Small-Scale Fisheries, adopted earlier this year by the FAO Committee on Fisheries.
Ahead of the CFS, countries agreed on a series of policies aimed at ensuring that people around the world have access to healthier diets.
The agreement, consisting of a Declaration and a Framework for Action would be adopted at the second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), which would be held in Rome between November 19 and 21, 2014.
This high-level inter-governmental meeting is jointly organised by FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
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