Garfield Ekon
Staff Writer

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is reporting that it has crossed the halfway mark for the 2030 Agenda and need to urgently accelerate their progress.

Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mario Lubetkin said the agency has analyzed how the region has made some progress in reducing hunger and food insecurity figures, and the latest estimates show that three million people no longer suffer from hunger. “However, we still face important challenges and gaps linked to agrifood systems, which could hamper our ability to respond.

“In this context, the transformation of agrifood systems becomes an immediate and critical need, a process in which investments and political and development agendas must be aligned to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We have crossed the halfway mark for the 2030 Agenda, so the need to accelerate our progress is urgent,” he said.

Mr. Lubetkin who spoke at the Seventh Meeting of the Forum of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on Sustainable Development (FLCLAC), in Santiago, Chile, added that it is necessary to prioritise policies and programs that impact food security and nutrition of people.

“For this, it is more relevant than ever to strengthen national and regional coordination mechanisms. The road to food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean requires continued commitment and concerted action on multiple fronts to ensure the well-being of present and future generations in the region,” he said.

The event was attended by national convenors, UN resident Coordinators, and representatives of various stakeholders, and its main objective was to assess the progress made by countries in the transformation of agrifood systems, facilitate the exchange of regional knowledge, and identify emerging patterns and solutions in response to the call for action made by the UN Secretary-General, during the UN Food Systems Stocktaking Event (UNFSS+2) held in Rome in July 2023.

UN Deputy Secretary-General and Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group, Amina Mohammed, stated that the meetings are critical to shaping the “collective vision” for more sustainable, equitable, healthy, and resilient food systems and indicate the acceleration needed to achieve the SDGs by 2030.