UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : FAO Press conference: Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report (SOFI)

OK,

good morning and thank you for joining the FA

O press conference at the UN office at Geneva.

Today's press conference will cover the launch of the report The State of Food

Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 also known as the Sophie Report,

published by FA O in collaboration with EAWFPWHO and UNICEF.

Sophie 2024 will present the latest updates on hunger,

food security and nutrition around the world,

including updated estimates on the cost and affordability of healthy diets.

Today we have with us Maximo Torero,

the FA O chief economist connecting from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Please note that this report and press conference are under embargo

and the embargo will be lifted on 24 July 2 p.m.

Central European summer time.

So please respect the embargo.

We also have with us Francesco Branca,

director of the Nutrition and Food Safety Department, from WHO.

Joining us in person,

and we have four colleagues connecting from Rome, including Sara

Savastano, director of

E,

A's Research and Impact Assessment Division.

Piero Conforti FA O, deputy director of the Statistics division.

Cindy Holman, FA O senior economist,

and Saskia

de

PWFP, senior uh, nutrition advisor.

They will be available to provide further insights and answer questions.

And without further ado, I would like to invite uh, Mr Maximo torero to the floor.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

And thank you all for being with us today

and thank you to the partners of the foreign institutions

in addition to FA O, which are part of the software.

So what I will do in the next 5 to 6 minutes is

give you a brief overview of the key results and the key messages

that are coming out from the soft publication this year.

Let me start by saying that late latest estimates

shows that the global hunger is persistently high at

nearly the same level for the last three consecutive years.

This after having risen sharply following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This means that we have to we have to stay

and stabilise for the last three years at the highest levels

of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of numbers, this reflects a 9.1%

of the global population facing hunger in 2023

the midpoint of our range That goes from

713 million people to 757 million people in hunger

is 733 million people in hunger,

compared to the 7.5% in 2019.

This means that current levels of undernourishment are

comparable to those of 20 tw 2008 and 2009

15 years ago.

If we consider the broader goal of ensuring regular access to adequate food,

this has also stopped.

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity has remained unchanged

for the last few years at around 28.9% of the global population

or 2.33 billion people.

The bottom line is that we are still far off

track towards the goal of freeing the world of hunger,

putting security and malnutrition by 2030.

Based on the current trajectory.

Our projections indicate that if we continue

under the same conditions as today, we

will be having 582 million people which will still face to face hunger in 2030

and half of them will be from Africa.

So the situation with the projections today is basically that we

will not achieve SDE two if we continue as we are,

however, it is still possible to reach our goal or to get as close as possible to it.

We know where hunger is more severe and increasing the major drivers behind this end

and what we mean we need to do to change this

now.

One of the important things, uh,

of the report today is that although hunger has a stall at the global level,

there are signs of encouragement

and there is a significant regional regional differences.

Progress has been made, uh, towards hunger in some regions of Asia

and most notably in Latin America from 2022 to 2023.

On the other hand, hunger is continued to increase

in Africa, Western Asia and in the Caribbean.

Recovery since the global pandemic has been particularly strong in Latin America

and particularly driven by South America

were 5.4 million people. Fewer face hunger in 2023 compared to 2021.

There is a significant change, a significant improvement,

and if they continue in this way, that part of the continent, uh,

will be able to achieve SEE two.

Economic recovery in this region has been stronger than the original expectations

and we also see improvements after the pandemic.

In other key indicators as poverty, income inequality and employment,

inflationary pressures have also live in most of the countries.

Now,

if we look at Africa where the situation is the

opposite to what we can find in South America,

we see that in 2023 is the region

with the largest percentage of population facing hunger

more than 20%

and the relevance of moderate or severe food insecurity is 58%

which was nearly double the global average.

One of the main challenges is that Africa is the only

region where hunger increased associated to all three major drivers.

Conflict, climate extremes and economic dangers,

especially conflict, is the major driver

which has driven the food crisis countries at the same time.

In many of the countries,

we face multiple impacts of those drivers

and that is creating significant impacts.

Now,

what are the key takeaways on on food cost?

Focusing specifically on economic access to healthy diet,

which is the what we'll be able to achieve if we achieve better access.

Of course, we will reduce overnutrition and undernutrition.

Our updated estimates, uh, show that more than one third of the people in the world.

About 2.83 billion people

were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022

while food prices increased through 2022 pushing up

the average cost of a healthy diet.

This was largely offset by economic

recovery and ensuring positive income effects.

So despite the increasing cost,

the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet in

the world fell back to pre panem levels in 2022.

Nevertheless,

similar to the overall hunger,

the uneven recovery is even evident across regions and count

income groups.

In 2022 the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet

dropped below pre panem levels in the group of upper,

middle and higher income countries.

In contrast, Low-income

countries had the highest level since 2017.

The first year we published this indicator

of the people in the world who were unable to afford a healthy diet. In 2022

1.68 billion, or 59% lived

in lower middle income countries.

This again reflects the significant increase

of inequalities among countries and regions

that has resulted because of COVID-19

now the second part, Uh, of Sophie, uh,

talks about the financing part which is crucial

to be able to achieve,

uh, the access to be able to achieve as the Year two

financing has a lot of challenges today.

So and what the what the report is trying to do is trying to

bring some potential solutions to the challenges

we are facing on some potential recommendations.

The first element is about the definition

just to give you an example. If we look at the definition applied for

average annual OD A,

we could have grants in 2022 that range from 6.9 to $62.6 billion per year.

What that means is that depending on what the definition we are using,

the numbers will be substantially different even 10 times more.

So. One of the major recommendations and one of the

normative recommendations of the Soft this year

is to bring up with a common definition

so that we understand what we are financing,

and we understand. Uh,

what are the key key elements that we want to

include in the definition so people can have more accountability

and donors can have more account

accountability of the flows that are happening.

The report also brings three key recommendations, uh, which are important?

Why?

Because we observe that the countries with the highest level of

food insecurity are oftentimes with the least access to fin to financing

of the 199. Uh, sorry. Of the 119 low and middle income countries analysed,

around 63%

have limited or moderate ability to access financing.

And as a result of this, our recommendations are

three

first, all funders and agrifood system actors

need to enhance coordinations

and consensus on what and where it is essential to finance

and better target financing for the ones most in need.

Considering national and local priorities,

this is central because it will allow us not only having a common definition

but also having exactly a good coordinations

that will minimise the inefficiencies that we are facing today.

We need to recognise that there has been

some improvement in co ordination and financing,

but there is a significant space to keep improving

so that we can have better coordinations and target.

Second donors and other international actors

must be risk tolerant and involved in the de risking activities.

We need to understand that the agrifood systems in which we operate

is a system that will be under risk and uncertainties,

and this will be increasing

because of climate.

We have already surpassed six of the nine planetary boundaries,

so the frequency of climate events will increase over time.

So donors and no international actives should and should bring more risk tolerance

to be able to

to to activate this financing.

And third,

we need more blending financing, but also innovation in financing

and here,

which is central also to attract climate financing to the agrifood systems.

The agrifood system provides the right to food

but at the same time generates externalities as all all of us know

externalities on emissions on biodiversity, on use of natural resources.

But it's a sector that has the bigger space to improve inefficiencies,

and that's why climate financing will be so important.

So colleagues

in summary, we have a situation in which we are at high levels of hunger in the world,

similar to the previous two years.

We're in a situation where there are

significant disparities at the regional level.

Special improvements in South America,

deterioration in Africa

because all the three drivers of conflict,

climate and the slowdowns and downturns

are really accelerating in that continent.

We clearly have not progressed. Although in some of the nutrition indicators

like exclusive breastfeeding, wasting and sting, there has been some progress.

Still, the velocity won't allow us to achieve the goals.

But we also need to to

to to put a lot of effort in how we improve

the way we finance this agri food system.

Because the only way we will be able

to achieve the goals is through proper financing.

And that's where a proper definition

coordinations

being able to take more risk

and innovation in financing instruments will be central in the following years.

Let me stop there.

I'm more than happy to answer any of your questions through my colleagues.

Thank you very much.

Uh, Maximo, for this very comprehensive overview of the Sophie 2004, uh, report.

Um, now, I'm pleased to have doctor Francesco Branca,

who would also like to add some remarks following, uh,

Doctor Torero's presentation.

Doctor Branca, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much.

So

is a key UN report to inform

about the status of world nutrition. So

I just like to compliment what

Dr

Torero

mentioned and say that definitely there are some good

news and we should start from the good news.

The good news is that we have had since 2012 a reduction in stunting.

The reduction of stunting,

which has impaired child growth and development in

the first five years has gone down from

26 to 22%

and that translates to 33. 0 million less.

Children under five are affected by this condition has important impact on

child development and economic development of the country.

We also had a reduction

in the acute malnutrition wasting

that went down from 7.5 to 6.8%

and that means 5 million Children less. With this condition.

And as Dr

Torero

mentioned,

we have to celebrate the success of improving exclusive breastfeeding rates

from 37 to 48% almost reaching the target that we

assembly is established

by 2025. We still have a lot of work to do for the 2030 target, but we are on track there.

The bad news are particularly the lack of improvements in women's anaemia,

so women's nutrition is still a challenge.

In fact, women's nutrition,

the anaemia of women women 15 to 49 years of age has increased from 28 to 30%.

And that translates into

over half a billion, 571 million women affected by this condition.

And of course, the other bad news is

the increase in the

number of

adults with overweight and obesity and particularly obesity.

We now calculate that over a billion individuals are affected by this condition,

with the projection to increase to 1.2 billion by 2030.

This is an important time,

and this report will constitute the basis of the analysis that the executive Board

will do in

January 2025 about the status of the target and considering also what should be

done to accelerate the progress towards the

achievement of these global nutrition targets.

Its 2025 is going to be an important year.

The French government is going to convene the Nutrition

for Growth Summit in March 2025 and that's an

opportunity to make the investment and to commit to

the establishment of effective food and nutrition policies,

but also It's the opportunity to have the second stock taking of

the UN Food system Summit to discuss action on food system transformation.

Thank you.

Um, thank you very much, Doctor Branca, for the additional remarks.

Now, we will now open the floor for questions.

Journalists,

please state your organisation and name before asking your questions.

And for our speakers online or here in person, please feel free to raise your hand.

If you would like to add to the answers now, um,

so we will start with the questions in the room.

All right.

Now, um, we will move. Uh, then we will move to the zoom.

Um, I see Jamie Keaton from a P.

Please go ahead.

Thank you

for the, uh, for the

the opportunity. And thank you for the presentation.

I guess this question is for, uh, Mr Torero,

um, I wanted to know what impact there has been, if any

on, uh, conflict, notably in Sudan

and in Gaza, in terms of, uh, the lack of insecurity in terms of,

uh, any impact on the overall global figures. Or if that is, uh, obviously Gaza began

in late last year. And, of course, Sudan happened in the spring of last year.

But I'm just wondering if you're seeing any signs that

that that's moving the needle in any way in terms of the, uh, global hunter group.

Uh, food and security situation. Thank you.

And do you want me to answer immediately or we'll wait for more questions?

Perhaps. Maximo, you can go ahead.

OK, so ve very briefly. Uh, of course, the numbers we are reporting on 2023 numbers.

No,

Uh, the major impact of of Gaza will will be reflected, I assume,

the following years.

But this is an important question to to differentiate, uh, two definitions

when we look at conflict zones.

And when we look at Gaza and Sudan and other countries which are in food crisis,

we use the definition of acute food insecurity

and acute food. Insecurity is a short term lack of access to food,

while in this report we report the indicators

of FDE which are related to chronic undernourishment.

So this is more a medium and long term impact.

So what is happening in Gaza?

What is happening in Sudan in terms of acute food insecurity,

of course, will be reflected if it continues over time,

and it will affect the numbers for the following years.

Uh, clearly, the situation, uh, that we are observing in Gaza is critical,

as has been reported acute food insecurity by the IPCC.

And the same, uh, in terms of of Sudan, uh,

which the numbers are becoming extremely critical.

So if that situation continues, then of course, it could end impacting

the future numbers, Uh, of what we report as hunger, uh, as the undernourishment.

Chronic undernourishment indicator of the so

thank you very much.

Um, I believe we also have Jan, um your hand is up the floor is yours?

Uh, yes. Good morning. Uh, Jan

Habermann for Target

Spiegel Berlin and other German,

Uh, media,

uh, this is a follow up to Jamie's question. I would like to ask you, um,

on the, uh, uh, Russian war of aggression in Ukraine

and its impact on the world food markets.

Uh, we know that, uh, the Russians cancelled the, uh, black sea

rain initiative. Um, last year it's about exactly one year ago.

So what has been the impact, uh, in the last year

on the world food markets and

of course, on the hunger situation in many parts of the world. Many things

th thank you for your question.

Uh, the major impact, uh,

that happened because of the war in Ukraine was reported in the previous

office in the

Soviet of 2023 where we even did a projection of

what will be what had been the impact both of COVID-19

and the war in Ukraine.

Uh, and the numbers were, I think,

an increase of 19 million people more in hunger as

a result of the of the war in the brain.

So we need to be careful that this process now have has been very smooth.

Commodity prices are going down.

Uh, exports has reestablished their levels.

Uh, because, uh, commodities are being exported

despite of the stop of the blacks

initiative. But commodities are moving now,

uh,

and the market has stabilised in terms of commodity prices.

If you look at the evolution of the F price index,

you will see that the commodity prices has been, uh, falling.

Of course,

this not yet is reflected across all countries in terms of final consumers.

So what we report in the FA O food price index is commodity prices,

the raw commodities we mayor?

What consumers eat is what they buy at the local markets, at the shops and so on.

And those are final products.

That, of course,

has a component of the commodity price but also have other elements,

like energy water, depending on what the product is about.

That those prices, what we call the food inflation, uh,

in some countries have improved, especially in developed countries.

But still,

we are not observing the transmission of commodity

prices in all the countries of the world,

especially

in the ones which are the most vulnerable. Uh, because of conflict,

so that still there is a residual that is moving forward. Uh uh, on on this not yet.

Return to lower food inflation in most of the countries of the world.

But the expectation

is that this will be improving, uh, O over time.

So in this year, we don't do a difference of what is the effect of the war in Ukraine.

Because, as I said before,

uh, this has been a smoothing over time. Uh, and, uh, we we don't have yet.

We don't have, uh uh,

any differentiated impact because of of of the case of Of the war in brain.

On the contrary, the impact of COVID-19 has spread

more over time

because that affected the economic growth of countries.

Uh, affected, uh, deafness of the countries.

And that is mostly moving.

The driver of slowdowns on downturns, which is affecting significantly,

has affected significantly.

Uh, the numbers that we face on hunger and has made us go backwards.

More or less, Uh, 15 years in the case of hunger. Nos.

Ok,

thank you.

We have a question from the room. Musa,

can you ask a question

concerning Gaza again?

You have some details about the situation of famine or malnutrition

in Gaza.

The difference between October 7th and today.

You have some details about the level of malnutrition there. Thank you.

Thank you.

Please, we need to understand that this report is not about, uh,

countries in food crisis.

This is a report that follows indicators, uh,

that we are supposed to report on SDE two.

Uh, all the details in terms of of the levels of, uh, acute food insecurity

and the potential impacts of man region. Uh, on Gaza and Sudan, uh, are

reported through the I PC.

Uh, but I don't know if any of my colleagues want to add something, but please,

it would be ideal if we refocus to what the report is saying,

which is basically focusing, uh, on SDG two indicators.

But let me pass to my colleagues. They could

add on this,

uh, many things, if I may,

just to direct the kind question to the report that FA O publishes on, uh,

global food crisis.

Uh, there is a, uh,

in that context and in the context of

the work of the international phase classification project,

the I PC

Something about Gaza.

Uh, the latest projection that we have by July.

Uh uh,

beginning of July is that acute food insecurity

Qantas may expand to interest 1.1 million people.

However, as Maximo said, this is not in the report we are launching today.

It's a different

organisation. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Piero.

And this is also a reminder to the other experts in the room, uh, in the zoom, uh,

chat as well.

Uh, if you have any.

If you would like to add to the answers of the speakers,

please feel free to raise your hand.

And, um, I see Nick, uh, Nick's hands is up, so please go ahead, Nick.

Thank you for taking the question. Um, two questions. One to Mr

Torero.

You identified three major factors in the

deteriorating situation food security in Africa.

I wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit on

the relative importance of these. Well, what is creating more of the downturn?

Is it?

Is it, uh, climate extremes impacting increasingly,

or is it Is it conflict particularly?

And a second question to Mr Branca?

Um, I mean, at a time when

the world is sort of consumed by more and more persistent conflicts

which have had huge impacts on nutritional status of that population,

I'm curious as to why you see

nut, uh, stunting and wasting,

uh, reducing. What are what are the factors that are are are helping to improve that.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you very much.

Yes,

please. Go ahead. Maximo.

Not sure. Uh,

in terms of of africa, Uh, the three drivers that that we look carefully are conflict

climate. Uh, and of course, slow down some downturns.

And then, of course,

there is the interaction effect between them because in many countries,

more than one

of the drivers will impact and will have an effect, uh,

over the situation of of hunger

in those countries.

Now, if we have to rank them, uh, this year,

I think the most important one is conflict.

As you can see,

the the level of conflict in the continent has increased,

uh, but also, of course, climate. And the third will be, uh, slowdowns and Don

and Slowdowns and Don

plays a a course cutting impact because it is related also to de stress.

And many of these countries are facing significant, uh, debt stress,

which is also affected in this report.

Why is this complicated?

Because it's not only the price effect of the commodities that affect, uh,

the capacity of consumption and access to food in these countries.

But it's also the effect as a result of

the increase in interest rates at the global level,

which impacts the capacity of the exchange rate of the country,

so deteriorates their currency,

so that makes buying their food more expensive.

And that is what we called, uh, the exchange rate effect.

So it's the price effect, plus the exchange rate effect.

In addition to that, because of the level of debt.

The cost of the debt has increased substantially,

and they will have to pay more of the flow of resources to pay in debt.

And that could imply

sacrificing part of the resources to buy food. The food in Portville,

but also, uh, implies that they

will have less capacity to get new resources

to be able to cover the gap of the food import.

So although conflict seems to be

increasing and climate impacts affecting significantly,

this the the macroeconomic situation also cuts across.

And that interactive effect, I think,

is one of the biggest impacts that we observe in many of these countries.

Uh, in Africa.

In the case of climate,

the expectation is that the frequency of events will continue to increase,

and we need to understand that these countries are very vulnerable.

So the capacity of resilience is lower

than countries which are doing better in other continents,

and as a result of that,

they will be affected more than countries which are more resilient.

So that's another element which we need to keep

in mind and which we need to look carefully,

uh, across time.

Sure, the reason of the improvements is actually the active

investment of governments in policies to reduce

sting and wasting sting and wasting have been

selected to be critical nutrition targets,

improvement in access to health,

improvement in water and sanitation

improvement in social protection. These are all policies that have been enabled

to address stunting and wasting

both on prevention and management

on wasting specifically larger investment in

the treatment of Children with wasting not only decreased the

the total number but have actually decreased the impact on mortality of wasting.

So this is just an indication that a very clear targeting

of these nutrition conditions with a set of well known,

effective policies adequately resourced is the way forward.

And so the

elimination of hunger and malnutrition is not just

a

vague ambition. It's something that can be achieved absolutely in our lifetime.

Thank you very much. I see

Saskia from WFP also raising her hand if you would like to add on.

Yeah, thank you very much. Uh, yeah, to that point on the stunting reductions,

um, there is, uh, sort of uneven progress on that reduction. And, um,

the question on where we see persistent conflict do we also see a reduction there

if you look at the, uh, regional figures, Uh, we see that in, uh,

Middle Africa and Southern Africa.

Uh, the prevalence of stunting has virtually remained the same between 2012 and 22.

So 37.9 to 37.4% for Middle Africa between 1220 12 and 2022.

And in Southern Africa, 23.4 and 22.8.

Uh, so that's against the background of a global

reduction from 26.3 to 22.3.

So less of a reduction there.

And, um, yeah, as, uh, Doctor Branca says there's many efforts from government.

Uh, but then there are, of course, uh,

situations outside or very difficult to address by, uh, by governments.

That sort of counteract, uh, this. And it's also where the, uh

the cost and affordability of, uh, of healthy diets and access to them. Uh, comes in.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I see Lisa Schlein. Hands up.

Yes. Good morning. Thank you. Uh uh uh uh. First, this is a a question to, uh, sask

uh, WFP.

Um there are so many forgotten crises in the world.

A great too many of them in Africa, Sudan and so forth. And,

uh, they are not getting the money that they, uh,

aid agencies are not getting the money yours as well as others

in order to help them. So I'm wondering,

um, how

what has happened in during your reporting period

in terms of you having to cut beneficiaries?

Uh, this has probably increased the number of hunger and so forth.

And what is the outlook?

Uh, in terms of, uh,

you're having to cut beneficiaries if you do not get the money that you need.

What will this ultimately mean In terms of, uh,

your efforts to try to end hunger in the world?

And then I'm wondering, whoever wishes to answer this is,

um you are talking about the need for money. How much money do you actually need

globally in order to end hunger?

And is this even feasible?

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Uh, Lisa, Now you've, uh, well noted that, uh,

the budget for humanitarian food assistance.

Uh, it went up, uh, in the response to or in the time of, uh, of covid.

Uh uh, war in Ukraine. Um,

but since then, it it has come down.

It's also, uh, governments, uh, also in donor countries, uh, spending more, uh,

domestically,

uh, with their to address their crisis. Um, so what this means for our response?

Uh, in terms of humanitarian food assistance,

we can help, uh, many fewer people and the numbers that we

were able to support two years ago and the

numbers that we're able to support this year?

Um, it's It's several tens of millions. Uh, less.

Um, I don't have the number on, uh, what it would take to, uh, address

one. And I would like to, uh, give that to the FA O colleagues, Uh,

who contributed much more to that part, Uh, of the report. Thank you.

So we have Cindy and Sarah's hands are up.

Maybe Cindy, you can go first, and then Sarah can add

over. OK,

Yeah. Thank you for the important question on,

you know, what is it going to take in terms of financing to end hunger?

Um, this is, uh, one of our main themes for this report, and we've done

quite a bit of research on this.

one thing that Maximo has already alluded to and mentioned

is that one of the problems is is that there's

no single clear definition of what financing food security and nutrition is.

So one thing we're putting forward in this report is a definition,

um, to clarify what it entails for financing for food security and nutrition.

Right now,

it's impossible to determine how much financing is going

to end hunger and malnutrition because of this,

Um, as we've seen, you know, depending on

your definition,

you have different ones, and this creates many problems.

One is that we don't really know how much money is going to the areas that need it most.

So also it creates problems of accountability

and impact. So one of the things that we've put forward in this report and we hope,

to send a strong call is that we need to improve and

have a common definition of financing for food security and nutrition,

and we've also put forward some protocols on how to implement

and who needs to take action.

That is all financing organisations, whether it's public, private,

both domestic and foreign. We need to improve this if we need to,

um, be able to track. However, we do know

that the number of, uh, in terms of trillions of dollars that we're We're, um,

have a funding gap on

uh so it's a we.

Also, in our analysis,

we show that many countries that have the highest levels of food

insecurity and most in need have a problem accessing this financing.

So it's very important that, um, what we look at is how we can

scale up And, um, how countries mobilise better financing and more cost effective,

more targeted for these more poorer countries that can't access.

This includes, um,

looking more at innovative ways to lose use collaborative financing,

um, to derisk investments. It's just gonna take, um, you know, investments

both from the public and private sector.

So using collaborative financing combined with

private to invest in food supply chains

to supply nutritious foods,

Other innovative things that we can do for countries in Africa is to look at,

um, debt for nature swats or debt SWAT swaps related to climate

and start funding, the climate resilience and the scale up of that which is needed

in many countries that are really seeing increases in hunger

at a global level. We see it stalled,

um, hunger. But in many countries that are affected by climate

and conflict and economic downturns. We see hunger continuing to increase.

So there's also a number of Parametric insurance measures that we

need to look at to help derisk investments in agrifood systems.

So we are hopeful that, you know, we can end hunger, but it's gonna take scaling up,

uh, financing, especially to countries that need it most

and overcoming this challenge we face which

they have problem accessing financing

countries are not able to mobilise enough funding that needed

to address food security and nutrition.

So that's something that we we really need

to address and what we're trying to achieve,

um, in terms of sending some strong calls in this record.

Thank you.

Sara, would you like to add?

Yes, thank you very much. And thank you for all these questions.

I would like to really maybe stop one second and go beyond the numbers because

sometimes 1 may be trapped by looking at the numbers and the conflict of today

and all the crisis of today may exacerbate

this anxiety towards the consequences on the number,

especially of nutrition and food security.

So while conflict and climate change may affect

short term numbers of nutrition and food security.

Economic downturn may affect the long term

consequences of nutrition and food security.

And in the

in the short term, both positive and negative changes in numbers are important.

But what matters is that in the long term,

nutrition and food security improve and why?

Because in

using our

assessment data, where we use evidence from

E

beneficiaries, we found out which is not maybe something new.

But nutrition and food security and especially nutrition,

are long term behavioural change.

As such, it requires time and investment, good investment,

financing for food security and nutrition to achieve those changes.

And while year by year change may reflect

prices, conflict and even climate change,

investing in

financing

in a holistic way

for long term nutritional improvement is much more important.

This is the reason why the focus of this year so

is really important,

because it really calls international development institutions to join forces

to really make a shift in the way we are financing

food security and nutrition

so that the investment that has been done in

the past and that are already visible in this

in this year's office number can continue again in the future.

And Africa,

where the burden of malnutrition and obesity is

stronger than everywhere else in the world,

calls for action for really from all the sectors of the economy.

And not only, uh,

maybe in agriculture that can call for changing the way we are financing.

And we are

supporting investment in nutrition and food security. Thank you,

thank you. And I believe Dr

Brea

has something to add.

Sure, no. I agree with my colleagues that

these numbers require a comprehensive assessment

looking at food security and nutrition.

But maybe I'd like to quote a very interesting report

that the World Bank put out in 2012

that estimated the cost of achieving

at least four of the global nutrition targets just to

give you an order of magnitude of where we are with

investments in 2012, the World Bank was estimating that to achieve the targets,

at least four stunting anaemia, exclusive breastfeeding and wasting,

we would need $70 billion in 10 years,

which is about 7 billion per year

now.

What we have seen in terms of donors, investment in this year has been 1 billion.

So it is a small fraction of what was really needed.

And just to achieve these four targets,

we also have to add that this

investment produced an incredible return on investment.

The investment of $1 for example, on programmes to

promote,

protect and support breastfeeding have a return of

investment of $35 which is really enormous programmes

investing in stunting $11 anaemia $12.

So there is definitely an incredible return.

And we want to flag this because clearly,

at a time of

shortage of resources for development and investment

in nutrition is really making a difference.

World Bank is coming out

next month with an update on these numbers, I presume,

also including the other big challenge, which is that of

overweight and obesity.

But that is really a message to not only donors on overseas aid,

but

but regulators and leaders in countries.

Because that's where the resources need to be mobilised.

Domestic resources are critical to achieve this target. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I see Maya's hand is up. Maya, do you have a question?

Yes. Thank you very much for taking my question.

Um, can you hear me?

Yes. We can hear you.

The question is regarding that in your report, you say that from 2017 to 2021.

95 billion from Remittances from migrants,

uh, philanthropy and foreign direct investment about 95 billion per year.

Uh, has been, um, evaluated. That was being going towards ending hunger

towards achieving the sustainable development. Goal number two and 2.1 and 2.2.

Uh,

and then also you say that several trillion are needed in fact,

to address to achieve zero hunger.

But which channels do you see are the most, uh, uh, useful.

And where the improvement has to come from

development banks wouldn't be important also to

create a self sufficiency within these countries.

Of course, some regions, some places cannot

because they are in conflict or they have.

They are facing hunger after in the aftermath of extreme weather events.

So what you see are the channels that need to be energised

in order to meet the challenge.

Le let me start, and then I we can pass to Cindy and other colleagues and so

and so on. But le let me start first by saying that uh, one of the core messages of this.

So is the importance of the definition.

And that's why uh,

you can refer to certain types of numbers that cover certain types of, of of targets.

But what we need to come is a common definition of what we want to achieve.

And the trillions refers to basically a more comprehensive definition

that will incorporate several of the indicators that we have been discussing.

Now, what do we know and and where we know there has been success.

Uh, Francesco already have talked about the returns to nutrition.

We also know that social protection programmes is one

of the major reasons why South America is doing better

than other regions of the world and why they were able to reduce more than 5 million

people moving out of hunger in the last two years.

Uh, and why?

Because social protection programmes help them to be able

to target the people which are the most vulnerable

and be able to to be able to expand or shrink depending on the job that they are facing.

So it's a very cost effective mechanism.

Also, we know in the case of emergency situations, uh,

anticipatory action will give you five for each dollar invested.

But it's very difficult to do anticipatory action if you don't have, uh,

funds available.

Uh, early, even before the choke happened,

because that's why it's called anticipatory action.

But early action also pays back when you respond very quickly to the chock, uh,

and WFP can can talk about it. The return is one in three.

Uh, so and we also know that, uh, there's other programmes that can be bring, uh,

better impact.

We have done an analysis of the marginal return of costs

of dollars invested in terms of reduction of hunger.

Uh, and and there are investments that will pay in the short term,

and there are investments that will pay in the long term,

and we need to tackle both at the same time.

Now,

what is important and where Why this report is being launched in the G

20 of Brazil is that this fits perfectly with the Alliance Against Hunger,

the Global Alliance against Hungar

and and poverty that the G 20 of Brazil is launching this year.

Why? Because the alliance has three key pillars. The first pillar is on knowledge,

and that's where we are trying to document

and bring evidence on what pays back the highest

in terms of reduction of hunger and undernutrition.

Second,

it has the pillar of financing where we

hope we can gain efficiencies in the financing,

which is one of the recommendations of the So

Why. It is important because you have several buckets on financing.

So you have the government money

which should be catalytic and should enable

you have the OD a bucket.

You have the IFI S,

the global banks like the World Bank or the regional banks like the African

Development Bank or or the ID BC and many others the Asian Development Bank.

Then you have the private sector,

which is and requires some support to reduce the risk.

And that's the blending that we are referring to

and the more capacity to take bigger risks.

And then you have the foundations. No, the the A K, a

foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation,

the Gates Foundation Massacre Foundation, which is catalytic mode.

So we need to look at each of the buckets and how we can gain efficiencies.

No, in the government,

we need to measure carefully what they are investing in the sector.

In the case of the OD a and the IFI S,

we need to coordinate better so that those doors are used more efficiently.

And in the case of the private sector,

we need to attract more private sector investment.

And in the case of the foundations, of course,

it should be catalytic to what the others are doing.

So a lot of efficiency gains can happen, uh, through a better coordinations,

in addition to the additional resources that are requested.

But the aim is not just to ask more money per SE,

but it's trying to find ways in which this can be coordinate.

And that's why the alliance will will play a role in that.

Thank you.

Uh, we have Cindy and Sarah with their hands up. Cindy, would you like to start?

And then Sarah could, uh, and Sarah as well Over.

Just to compliment, Um

uh, Maximos.

I think you know, one thing to keep in mind is that

the countries where hunger is increasing the most

are those that are affected by the major drivers.

So that's conflict, climate, economic downturns

and those that are affected the most are those that are occurring in combination

and also where you also have high levels of, um, inequality

as well as afford unaffordability healthy diets.

So the definition that we're putting forward is really critical because right now,

if you look at funding,

most of the funding that's going is going to

the traditional things about food security and nutrition.

But our definition considers two elements. One is a core part of the definition,

which is about funding food, secure food consumption, the availability, access,

the health, um, environmental, um

environmental, um, environment, healthy environments,

um, health services.

That's what you normally fund with food security and nutrition.

But what's additional is that we've identified that the funding

is needed to go to address these major drivers.

So that's what we're calling the extended definition.

And currently there's not enough funding going to that.

that means we need to look at our

agrifood systems and transform them so they're resilient to

the climate extremes.

Also that, um, vulnerable populations are, um, resilient and, uh,

have social protection when there's economic downturns.

Uh, it means also looking at,

um, integrated peace building and, uh,

development in conflict areas so that we don't have famines when there is conflict.

Um, so it's this integration of funding these major drivers,

and we have a number of pathways we've identified

on different portfolios of policies to address that.

So what's if we're really going to end hunger and food security?

We need to do things differently.

We need to look at which countries where we

really have a large amount of numbers of people,

um, that are hungry and where it's increasing.

And we need to be doing targeted financing to address those issues.

And that does mean looking at closer at these drivers and how to build resilience.

How to scale up climate resilience, how to build in, um,

social protection where countries need it.

The other thing to add is the countries that need

the most financing are those that cannot access it,

whether they have high debt, they're poor.

They have a very low income, um,

base for taxes to support the things that are needed for these these elements.

So we also need to look at innovative financing.

We can't just rely on one form of financing.

We need to look at creating financing for these. I have mentioned this before.

You know we It's not just the development banks or just OD a.

That's not going to be sufficient

to reach the targets that we need in terms of the changes in our agri food systems.

So we do need to use our financing in a different way.

We need to look at looking at, um, concessional and grants

just to make it more blended to get private investment to derisk.

Um, the risk in terms of agrifood systems

in terms of supply chains, making them more nutritious, scaling up nutrition

Also within the climate financing.

How can we turn some of that financing to address food security and nutrition? A

lot of the climate fencing isn't looking at

the impacts on hunger and food insecurity.

So there's a lot that we need to do in terms of streamlining, improving.

And that's one of the reasons why we call for collaborative and consensus

increased partnerships.

Because if we're going to meet the targets that we need to,

it's gonna take efforts across the board.

Um, so again,

you know we need more targeted, more cost effective.

We need collaboration between public and private.

It's not one person's responsibility. It's the government

it's donors. Um, it's the private sector.

Also, the private sector is investing a lot. And

a lot of the investment that's going on is not conducive to healthy diets,

Necessarily.

So if we don't address that also so we need to bring the private sector on board

so that they have the goals of investment that will bring

the outcomes of food security and nutrition that we're looking for.

Thank you,

Sara.

Uh, thank you very much.

And along the line of what, uh, Nancy was saying, but also with using the IFA D ls or I

AD, uh, framework. Uh, I

AD is really innovating in order to create new waves

of channelling financing from the private sector to the rural population

and the new rural development report that we are about to launch and

the strategic framework for until 2030

are pointing towards financing a connected,

equitable, resilient and prosperous,

prosperous rural transformation and in financing food and nutrition.

Security is part is only one component, uh, one component of it.

And also we have to think smarter and the innovative, for example,

leveraging Remittance.

maximising the impact of Remittance means not only

giving families more options to use them efficiently.

But it means also that families will save and invest more if they are

provided with the appropriate savings and investment

schemes. And this is why, for example, financial inclusion

and digitalization are key drivers of these.

The digitalization of Remittance is, uh, changing tremendously,

especially in rural areas and and underserved areas.

And this is connecting millions of unbanked people to basic financial service

and making them a real difference in provi in improving their lives.

Connecting, uh,

I mean a partnership between international organisations that allows to

finance investment in digitalization for Remittance at the same time,

for example,

improving the digital infrastructure to allow those

who are located in the most remote

areas of the world who would be able to benefit from the smarter,

innovative ways of making

making investment is really key and, uh, fundamental to achieve this change over

thank you very much. I see

Saskia has her hands up, and I guess you would like to add.

But however, perhaps we could, um, bring Maya. Maybe she has a follow up question.

And then

Saskia and other experts could also,

uh, build on the following question.

Maya Are you there?

Yes, thank you very much. It's a follow up question.

And, uh, perhaps, uh, S

AC

A can answer, too. Uh, it's, uh,

regarding the aspect of nutrition which, uh, Cindy also brought up, uh, which is,

uh,

you know, the question of, uh, financing education in healthy diets

and

sustainable agri

agrifood systems. Right? It seems quite

important, too,

because if when we see these photos or video footage of delivery of food after,

you know,

an extreme weather event or in conflict zones we see lots of flour being delivered

like and and some processed bars of protein

These are really terrible sources of nutrition.

But of course, in that situation, it is the only thing

that they can,

uh, you know, quickly get in the hands of people before they die of starvation.

However,

shouldn't we be more strongly focused on making

sure that the food the agrifood systems are sustainable

from the soil up and that the nutrition component of

all this food aid be financed by overseas development aid

or finance financed by domestic sources that this,

uh uh be transversal to what we do going forward.

And I understand also self sufficiency is quite important.

And I know the World Food Programme in Haiti has some programmes which works

with local farmers to actually help them

increase their production or make it sustainable.

So My God,

thank you very much.

Thank you. Um, so

would you like to perhaps

answer the previous question and also the current one and other experts,

if you would like to, um, add, please let us know.

Yeah, thank you very much. And thanks for that. Uh, additional question. Uh, Maya,

Um, yeah.

So in, uh, periods of acute food insecurity, uh, providing food assistance.

It's a major logistical operation.

Uh, so, of course,

the first choice is to meet the needs with what is

locally available and to provide the means to access that.

Uh, so where possible? We pro

as a humanitarian food assistance agency.

We provide cash so people can access food locally.

When that's not possible. We will provide food in kind.

Um, and it being a major logistics operation. Uh, it has to be food that has, uh, a

shelf life that we can handle through the the operation.

So that's why you see, uh, basically dry food,

uh, being distributed um, but it can be a combination to also access. Uh,

yeah, fresh, uh, more local nutritious foods Where, um, that is available.

Um, so now I want to turn to the the cost and affordability metric,

uh, and linking it to social protection.

Um, so the proportion of people that cannot afford a healthy diet, the higher it gets

the also the deeper the gap of people to be able to afford, uh, that healthy,

nutritious diet.

Um, so where, uh, the gap is, like, say, 50%?

Of course, the diets are very, uh, not meeting the needs of people.

Um, and also social protection.

Uh, it becomes really hard to provide sufficient support to close that entire gap.

And that's where the design of, uh,

shock responsive social protection as well

as nutrition sensitive social protection,

comes in.

So you want to make the most, um,

with the resources available to make the largest dent for whom, uh, it matters most.

So social protection needs to be adaptive to respond

to the shock in terms of who are affected,

How are they affected and how can they be best?

Uh, supported?

Um, that's also where nutrition sensitive uh, comes in.

Uh, so how do you link it with the component that specifically addresses

the needs of the most nutritionally vulnerable?

Or how can you make more of the transfer?

Um, and they're making a link with, uh, fortified foods.

It's a very good one.

also a link with a voucher to stimulate the demand for specific,

nutritious foods that are locally available.

So there are many ways to, um

yeah, fine tune the design, uh, of social assistance programmes,

uh, to address

as much as possible of the food insecurity and, uh, nutrition

situation amongst, uh,

the recipients just to say social protection is a great mechanism.

Um, but it may only be focused on initiating severe poverty.

While there are many things that can be done to make it more responsive to shocks, uh,

and make it more nutrition sensitive.

Thank you.

I believe Francesco would like to add.

And then after Maximo can come in and then Cindy over.

Thank you for the question. I think

you raised a very important point.

Uh, the food that is delivered not only during emergencies Sasa

was already explaining, but

in the many

opportunities that the public sector has to deliver food to people.

We have to think, of course, of social protection programmes. But

if you think of the million meals that are served every day

in school canteens in hospitals,

in all canteens run by ministries or local authorities,

there is an incredible power to offer healthy food, and we still don't have that.

So public food procurement is really an important

element for transformation of the food system.

And then you heard that Sophie says that about a third a bit

more than a third of the world population cannot afford a healthy diet.

But do you know how many people consume a healthy diet? Probably 1 to 10% maximum.

So there is an element of transformation of the food environment

and transformation of our food culture to actually consume better diet.

And that's entirely driven by public policies.

Public policies can do a lot to shape the way we consume food.

The food we choose it could be done through fiscal policies by just

putting taxation to food shouldn't be consumed as much if you think of,

for example,

sugar sweetened beverages, but also certain countries have taxation

of foods high in salt, for example,

and then

controlling the marketing. Why should we have the promotion of foods which we know

are unhealthy and information to consumers,

allowing them through a very clear nutrition front of the pack labelling to

select foods

which are better,

All these elements need to come in place. And, of course,

the private sector investment should not go

in production of food,

which we know are detrimental to health and actually produce a very high cost.

I think a previous report of

was showing that almost

the whole cost

the whole revenue generated by the food system, was equaled by

the negative

impact of

consumption of unhealthy food on health and the environment.

Maximo,

the floor

is yours.

Yeah, just very, very briefly Before passing to Cindy,

I just wanted to touch the the point of self

sufficiency. We need to be careful. I think the

the the topic that we need to be talking about is resilience. Uh, why?

Because I could become self sufficient in in in my boot.

But if I am affected by a climate shock,

all my self sufficiency could disappear overnight,

and then what I do.

That's why the concept of resilience that incorporates both elements,

incorporates on one dimension and the diversity of what I produce,

because at the end, we want access to healthy diets.

But the other dimension is access to trade partners,

and I think we need to keep both dimensions open

in a world that will be choked by this type of, uh, risk and uncertainties.

That's the only way we will be resilient

to this type of vulnerabilities,

Cindy.

Yeah, Thank you. I just wanted to bring this back.

Um, just complimenting all the my colleagues. What they've said is that,

um if we look at, you know, financing

to, um, bring down the cost of nutritious foods and to support food environment.

It's definitely underfinanced

in our new definition.

We have a a whole two pathways,

transformative pathways that we are saying that we want to start to monitor

the financing going into them. And one is,

um, bringing down the cost of of nutritious foods

and also, um, building,

um, healthy food environments.

Um, so these are very much important.

We need to begin to to start bringing attention to

those being funded and making sure those are being financed.

Uh, so it's a big part of our definition.

And of course, as our my colleagues have already said,

the food environment is critical and we need to

do more funding in terms of financing of that.

And that includes, as as Branca mentioned, education regulations, marketing, Um,

look at marketing much better,

Um, labelling. There's so many things that we can do

to strengthen and make sure that we have healthy food environments.

But we also need to look at the availability and access of nutritious foods.

Our report last year showed that if we

look at the per capita availability of vegetables,

for example,

most countries and regions in the world don't have enough to

meet the needs of everybody was having a healthy diet.

So a lot of, uh,

what we're calling for in terms of financing and scaling up

is also to to invest in these two transformative pathways,

not only ensuring accessibility of nutritious foods at a reasonable cost,

but also to increase the availability.

And that means all interventions and investments all along agrifood system

supply chains from production and increasing the diversity of nutritious foods,

but also looking at the coal storage and availability

because we see that food insecurity and hunger is high, not only in rural areas.

It's also high

in peri

urban and urban areas. So we need to look beyond this.

And then, of course, as, uh, my colleague Saskia

mentioned, you know, how can we be more innovative also in ensuring in conflicts,

especially protracted conflict situations on how we can

ensure populations have access to nutritious foods?

Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, Maya, is that a follow up question?

And if so, um, perhaps you could specify who to whom.

You would like to ask your question.

Thank you very much. Um, yes. It's a quick question. Perhaps, uh, I don't know. Um

um

uh, Mr Torero or, uh, mrs uh, um, Homan can speak. Or Mrs

Savastano.

Uh, the idea is that, uh, uh, just a quick, uh uh, comment on,

uh, financing women in rural settings.

As we know,

women find it harder to find traditional forms of finance from banks and whatnot.

And sometimes they are isolated too, and they don't have, you know,

good communications

or news. Uh, organisations that

that will transfer information about the, uh,

government subsidies available for them right to in

order to produce crops and so on.

So what in the report have you highlighted found out?

And what do you recommend in terms of enhancing mechanisms that allow women, uh,

rural women to have the same degree of access to finance for their farms

quickly? If I may quickly answer

and C, they can compliment. But we have a full report on this.

It is woman in the agrifood system

that was published last year. I will put the link in in the in the notes. Uh,

but I think that report goes into very much detail

on which are the best practises and so on.

Uh, C this. Sorry.

Um, yeah. So thank you so much for raising that point. That's very critical.

Um, of course, you probably have seen the the the research that shows that if you put,

um, an extra dollar in the hand of a woman farmer,

you know what that does in terms of improving?

Also the food security and nutrition of members

of the household and also the community where

women get together and have a co op and they have access to additional funds.

They have a much bigger impact in terms of

improving food security and nutrition for the community,

so this is a really important element. Um, and Maximo

said, There's a lot of, um

um examples of what can be done in this group.

I think the main thing I want to emphasise also is let's not

only focus on rural women as our report last year showed.

We need to be thinking differently in terms of food security and nutrition,

because we have done an analysis across a rural urban continuum and

we have many different settlements that are growing

and they're connecting the rural and the urban.

And I think you know

it's important to look at targeting

women in the supply chains,

small business enterprises that are run by women with nutritious foods.

Um, also in a lot of the peri

urban

um, areas where there's there's a very poor access to food is putting food,

putting money in their hand to increase income

opportunities, but also to supply healthy, nutritious food.

So there's a lot that we need to do, and that's very much a big part of it.

If you look at one of our pathways that is included in our definition,

and that we want to be tracking

is on, um,

inclusiveness and inequality and inequality has to do with women and youth.

And so what we want to see is more funding in terms of women and youth

to make this, uh, more, uh, bigger gains in terms of food security and nutrition.

So we do need to target them.

We need to target them across in many different ways

and not just think of farming or women farmers,

but throughout our agrifood system, across the urban will Continue on.

Thank you.

Um, Sarah, I saw your hands up. Uh,

did you want to

just a last point?

identifying,

innovative way be creative or using a holistic view of

nutrition and food security means only taking all the opportunities

to to really invest for what is important and what is relevant.

Um, we all know how, uh, nutritious, Uh uh,

nutritional outcomes are transferred between women and their child,

and therefore, training

is of fundamental importance.

And in fact, what we're trying to do when we, uh when we invest in,

uh,

system transformation

is we always provide training.

So being holistic means that every time there is for example,

a Value Chain development project or a microfinance

project where target is on Women

also put there a component of nutrition, adding training, programme,

training programme for

micro nutritious food. This doesn't mean that you only access to finance.

But while accessing to finance you attend the training.

And this training is not only learning about how to use microfinance,

but it also on how to use nutritious food,

which was not the primary objective of the programme of the project,

though an important secondary outcome that can be

even more important than the first one over.

Thank you very much.

Now I don't see any further questions from the journalist.

this is just to highlight one more time that the embargo will be

lifted on the 24th of July 2 p.m. Central European summer time.

And, um, in the meantime,

please let us know if you have any follow up

questions or interview requests and we'd be very happy to facilitate

Um and with this, we will conclude the Sophie press conference. Thank you very much.

We wish you a lovely day

FAO Press conference: Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report (SOFI) - 22 July 2024