Speaking ahead of the publication of the 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, Agnes Kalibata, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, said:
“It is an indictment on our entire food systems – from production to distribution and disposal – that in 2020, as many as 811 million men, women and children went without enough to eat, according to the latest SOFI report.
“The pandemic is only partly to blame. Hunger on this scale is not a symptom of Covid-19, it is a symptom of a dysfunctional food system that buckles under pressure and abandons the most vulnerable first.
“The millions facing hunger today need immediate aid and assistance. But the generations to come need systemic change, and this is the aim of the UN Food Systems Summit, to transform food systems so they not only feed the world, but nourish it to its full potential.
“My hope is that this challenge will be at the centre of Member State pathways to action as they step forward to announce food systems ambitions at the Pre-Summit and Summit ahead of the decade of Action.”
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