Ensuring that no one is left behind - Food security and sustainable agriculture, climate action, sustainable oceans and terrestrial ecosystems - adopting a nexus approach
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Conference Room 4
Official meeting
Statements
Statements
The interlinked and interconnected nature of sustainable development goals can be seen in the important nexus of sustainable agriculture, the climate, the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems which show how negative trends in these areas can undermine food security and how sustainability in these areas is the only long-term solution for the future.
Food security and nutrition are essential for sustainable development. However, one in every nine people in the world, representing the most vulnerable groups, are currently unable to consume enough food to conduct an active and healthy life. Accordingly, the 2030 Agenda contains SDG 2 which aims to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. Achieving food security is hereby strongly linked to sustainable agriculture , adequate climate action and well-functioning oceans and terrestrial ecosystems .
Agriculture, which generates food and income for many people around the world, is dependent on the global ecosystems. While oceans and terrestrial ecosystems offer crucial ecosystem services and are an important source of food and nutrition, they are increasingly threatened, degraded or destroyed by human activities. Among the main threats is climate change, which impacts the health of the global ecosystems, hinders sustainable agriculture and represents one of the biggest threats to food security in the 21st century. Furthermore, the anticipated growth in the world population to 8.5 billion people by 2030 together with its rising food demand will put immense pressure on the agriculture sector.
As hunger remains an everyday challenge for almost 795 million people worldwide, including 780 million in the developing regions , main challenges must be addressed and sustainable agriculture implemented in order to ensure food security and nutrition for all so that no one is left behind. An integrated approach is hereby crucial.
The session will identify important inter-linkages among the different nexus areas and enumerate possible threats to agriculture, the climate and the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems which are at the same time negatively affecting food security. The session will elaborate on the necessity of using an integrated approach when dealing with this nexus at the sub-national, national, regional and global level.
Possible questions for discussion:
- What are the most important inter-linkages among the different nexus areas?
- What are possible threats affecting agriculture, the climate, the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems and how do they affect food security?
- How can an integrated approach be used when dealing with this nexus at the sub-national, national, regional and global level to ensure that no one is left behind and what are good examples of such approach?
5 FAO (2015): The State of Food Insecurity in the World.
6 TST Issues Brief: Sustainable Agriculture
7 TST Issues Brief: Climate Change and disaster risk reduction
8 TST Issues Brief: Oceans and Seas; Global Sustainable Development Report 2015 Edition Advance Unedited Version, Chapter 3
9 TST Issues Brief: Forests, TST Issues Brief Biodiversity
10 UNDESA (2015): 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects.
11 FAO (2015): The State of Food Insecurity in the World
Chair:
- H.E. Mr. Sven Jürgenson, Permanent Representative of Estonia to the UN and Vice President of ECOSOC
Moderator:
- H.E. Mr. Ronald Jumeau, Ambassador for Climate Change and Small Island Developing State Issues, Seychelles
Roundtable members:
- Ms. Deborah Fulton, Secretary at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
- Ms. Evelyn Nguleka, President, World Farmers' Organization
- Ms. Omoyemen Lucia Odigie-Emmanuel, President of the Centre for Human Rights and Climate Change
- Mr. Jake Rice, Chief Scientist – Emeritus at the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
H.E. Mr. Ronald Jumeau
Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Seychelles to the United Nations.
H.E. Mr. Ronald (Ronny) Jumeau is Seychelles Ambassador at large. He was appointed Seychelles’ Permanent Representative (Ambassador) to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States for the second time in March 2017. He started his career as a journalist and then Chief Editor of the Seychelles Nation daily newspaper. He became Secretary to the Cabinet in the Office of the President of Seychelles in 1992 before holding several ministerial posts from 1998 to 2007 including that of Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, which included responsibility for climate change, conservation, water, forestry, agriculture and fisheries. In 2007 Ambassador Jumeau was appointed Seychelles’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States, Canada, Brazil, Cuba and several Caribbean islands until 2012 when he became his country’s New York-based roving Ambassador for Climate Change and Small Island Developing State Issues. He is a Vice-President of the Assembly of SIDS DOCK, the global sustainable energy initiative for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and a Vice-Chair of its Executive Council. He is also the Alternate Member of the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), representing Small Island Developing States (SIDS). He was Chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) from 2013 to 2015 and is currently a Vice-Chair, and was Chief Spokesperson of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) from 2012 to 2014.
Mr. Jake Rice
Chief Scientist - Emeritus, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
Mr. Jake Rice is Chief Scientist-Emeritus for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. Over the course of his research career he has worked on a variety of oceans-and climate change-related issues, including as a member of the Group of Experts for the UN Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, and as Lead Author for the chapter on Drivers, Trends and Mitigation of the IPCC Assessment Report 5. He has more than 270 publications in the scientific and technical literature, primarily on the ecosystem approach to integrated management.
Ms. Deborah Fulton
Secretary at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
Ms. Deborah Fulton is Secretary of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), where she leads a Secretariat facilitating the intergovernmental Committee’s multistakeholder work on global coordination and policy convergence to address the most pressing issues impeding the achievement of food security and nutrition for all. She has more than 25 years of experience in international development, including with regard to food security, climate change (financing, adaptation and mitigation), land administration, forestry and rural development. She has experience in designing and managing bilateral and regional development programs in the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea, and humanitarian and disaster risk reduction programs in Asia and the Pacific, including in Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries, and fragile and conflict affected states.
Ms. Evelyn Nguleka
President, World Farmers' Organization
Ms. Evelyn Nguleka is the president of the World Farmers’ Organisation. Dr. Nguleka was born in Zambia in 1970, she is part of the million small farmers who, with their daily work, are the real foundations of agriculture worldwide. She has a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Lusaka. Thanks to her profession as farmer and her specialization in Veterinary, she was able to be a reference point for the local farmers who, in a country like Zambia, have considerable difficulties to treat diseases that affect their livestock. Before joining the WFO presidency, she was the first woman president of Zambia Agricultural Organization and the Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU)"
