Ngày Lương thực Thế giới 2022 : Thông điêp của Tổng Giám đốc FAO

Dear friends, these past years have presented us with many complex food security challenges. We have had three years of a pandemic on the top of the economic downturns, conflicts and war, the climate crisis, interrupted international supply chains, increasing inequalities and rising food prices, among others. All confirming how they interconnected our economies and lives are. Rising food prices affect all of us but the impact are felt the most by the vulnerable and by the countries already experiencing a food crisis. Today, 3.1 billion people around the world still cannot afford a health diet. Hunger continues to rise and it's affected 828 million people in 2021, an increase of about 46 million people since 2020 and 150 million since 2019. Farming and malnutrition are leading to loss of lives and put at risk the health future for our children. Catastrophic short-term events are developing into protracted crisis with overlapping challenges, which over time are leaving an increased number of the people behind. Now, more than ever, we need to harness the power of the solidarity and the collective action. Our agri-food systems hold a great potential for a more equitable and prosperous future as we are interlinked to the many areas of lives and economy, from agriculture to the natural resources, to energy, to health and many more. Agriculture is among the most cost-effective humanitarian interventions to honor our pledge to leave no one behind. It is critical that we transform our agri-food system to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, a better life for all. We need to empower the most vulnerable, including small-scale producers, by investing in global agri-food systems. This means improved access to the training, incentives, science, data, technology and innovation so that smallholders can be at the center of this transformation. We need to dissent rural employment and services and to end the child labor. While fostering gender equality and supporting rural and indigenous peoples who are the custodians of much of the earth's biodiversity, at the same time, governments need to provide timely and well-targeted social protection programs that protect the most fragile. We need to support the countries at the risk of hunger, malnutrition and farming, helping them to transform agri-food systems, funding humanitarian appeals and boosting resilience. Greater priority must be given to the increase in local nutritious food production and preserving natural resources. The FAO Strategy Framework 2022-31 prioritizes this transformation across all our work in support of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit and other multilateral initiatives have initiated the dialogues and pathways putting agri-food system transformation higher on the global agenda. FAO continues to support the implementation of the national pathways for transformation by hosting the UN Food Systems Summit follow-up coordination hub on behalf of the UN system. Dear friends, let this World Food Day be a reminder of the need to accelerate this effort and strive for a future where no one is left behind. And while everyone has access to the health and affordable food, let us work better together to build a new era of hope for everyone, everywhere. I thank you.