CFS CHAIRPERSON’S SUMMARY

As a significant contribution toward the achievement of SDG-2, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is pleased to share with the HLPF its recently adopted Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition (CFS VGFSyN) (Annex I). Released ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit, these Guidelines will support countries in their efforts to eradicate all forms of hunger and malnutrition through a food systems policy approach. Resulting from an inclusive, five-year intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder consultation and negotiation process, the Guidelines include a broad array of policy-specific recommendations aimed at reducing policy fragmentation between relevant sectors, with a special emphasis on food, agriculture and nutrition, while addressing social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Specific guidance related to pandemics and other systemic shocks is contained in paragraphs 10-12, 35, 3.1.1(b), 331(b), 332(f), 60, 371(c), and 372(a).

In addition to mainstreaming the impacts of COVID-19 into the Committee’s policy convergence work, CFS recognized the immediate negative spill-over effects of the pandemic on global food security and nutrition and promptly took action from March 2020 through a number of targeted activities. These include:

• Production of an “Issues Paper” by the CFS High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (CFS HLPE) at the request of the Chairperson with the intention of drawing public attention to the threat of rising hunger and malnutrition due to COVID-19, and helping to prevent a full-blown food crisis. This Issues Paper, entitled “Impacts of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition: developing effective policy responses to address the hunger and malnutrition pandemic” was prepared in March 2020 and updated in September 2020. The Issues Paper provides specific recommendations from the HLPE on ways to avert the worst outcomes and carefully consider how to build more resilient food systems and promote the right to food, in order to achieve SDG 2. An abstract is presented in Annex II as part of this Chairperson’s Summary, noting that its content was not negotiated by CFS members and stakeholders through a formal policy convergence process and, therefore, not considered a negotiated CFS text that represents the viewpoint of all CFS stakeholders.
• A Statement on COVID-19 by the CFS Chairperson.
• Extra-ordinary meetings open to all CFS stakeholders to address the implications of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition, and to highlight specific actions being taken by CFS Advisory Group members and others.
• Open expert meetings on specific themes such as “resilient food supply chains and workers’ health during COVID-19.
• A High Level Special Event on Global Governance of Food Security and Nutrition aimed at keeping food security and nutrition front and centre on the global sustainable development agenda. This event featured a keynote address by WHO Director General and numerous other senior officials and experts.

CFS activities and resources on COVID-19 can be found on a dedicated section of our public website.