Dubai: Around 2000 participants from over 160 countries, including over 20 Heads of State and Government, will attend the UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2) at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome on July 24-26. The event convened by the United Nations Secretariat, and hosted by Italy, in collaboration with the Rome-based UN Agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP), will be officially inaugurated on Monday, 24 July during a high-level opening led by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni.
The opening segment will also have the participation of FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and several Heads of Government, including the Prime Ministers of Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Samoa and Nepal.
Over three days, the high-level meeting aims to create a conducive space for countries to review progress on the commitments to action made at the first Food Systems Summit in 2021, and identify successes, enduring bottlenecks and establishing priorities. The FAO Director-General said,
The UNFSS+2 stocktaking meeting will be an important occasion to further strengthen political commitment and pathways for implementation at global, national and sub-national levels. The historic task we are facing is clear: defining a holistic, coordinated and science based approach to make our agrifood systems more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.
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The event will also be an opportunity for countries to outline the work required to address some of the challenges they face to transform their agrifood systems. These include the impacts of conflicts and climate change as well as access to finance and other resources.
The Summit comes at a time when up to 783 million people are facing hunger in the world, 122 million more since 2019 due to the pandemic and repeated climate shocks and conflicts, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report.
The capacity of people to access healthy diets has also deteriorated across the globe: more than 3.1 billion people in the world – or 42 percent – were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. FAO Chief Economist, Máximo Torero, warned during a recent media briefing on the UNFSS+2,
If we project that to the future, we will have 600 million people chronically undernourished by 2030, far from the goal of Zero Hunger
The UNFSS+2 Stocktaking Moment takes place ahead of several other important global gatherings. These include the SDG Summit, the UN Climate Conference COP28, and the G7 Summit.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.