United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021: IFAD’s engagement and key messages
A guide to the Summit and a summary of IFAD’s core messages on food systems.
Our current food systems are not sustainable. Hunger has been on the rise for several years, with an estimated 811 million people worldwide going hungry in 2020 – and with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 132 million more people are expected to join this number soon. Meanwhile, our food production practices – particularly the expansion of large-scale industrial agriculture – come with an unacceptably high environmental cost, threatening the food security of future generations.
This is an untenable situation, and it has become clear that we need to rethink all aspects of our food systems. That’s why, in 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit.
At IFAD, we believe small-scale farmers can offer solutions to these problems. But in order to succeed, they need the right tools – and that requires us to re-orient food systems so that these farmers are given opportunities to thrive, and to be fairly rewarded for the work they do.
Here are five reasons we believe that food systems with productive and prosperous small-scale farmers at their core can help us build a sustainable future.
Thriving small-scale farming systems can offer the solutions to many challenges the world is facing today while enriching the quality of rural lives and livelihoods. But for this to happen, we need radical changes to the way food systems work. For example, markets need to work for small-scale farmers, and research and innovation systems cannot continue to neglect their needs. And rural and urban areas must be better linked so that small-scale farmers can provide healthy, affordable food for growing urban areas.
These and other issues related to the challenges facing small-scale farmers and their communities must be at the forefront of the deliberations and outcomes of the Summit. Transforming food systems so they work for all starts with addressing the needs of those working within the systems themselves. Only then can small-scale farmers contribute to solving the problems we face – and be assured of decent livelihoods for themselves and their families.
Click here for more information on IFAD’s participation in the Summit, including our key messages for the world.