The UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2) will take place in Rome, Italy, from July 24 to 26, 2023, on the premises of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The first Stocktaking Moment is convened by the United Nations Secretary-General, hosted by the Government of Italy, in collaboration with the Rome-based Agencies of the United Nations (FAO, IFAD, WFP), the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub and the wider United Nations system.
The UNFSS+2 follows the UN Food Systems Summit 2021, known as the “People’s Summit”, where the Special Envoy and Secretariat engaged self-organizing constituency groups of civil society, Indigenous Peoples, Private Sector, Producers, and Youth, from all parts of the world and across the diverse sub-sets of food systems.
To build upon the achievements of the UN Food Systems Summit, the Food Systems Coordination Hub has been working to mobilize a wide range of stakeholders for follow-up activities. This includes the establishment of the Stakeholders Engagement, Networking, and Advisory (SENA) Group.
On June 23, the Hub organized a virtual Stakeholders’ Briefing on the Food Systems Summit Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2).
The Stakeholders’ Briefing aimed to provide engaged stakeholders with updates on the objectives, format, and preparation process of the UNFSS+2. Participants had the opportunity to share their insights, expectations, and recommendations for the first Stocktaking Moment and discuss the subsequent steps to be taken.
The briefing featured, among others, the participation of Ms Amina J. Mohamed, United Nations Deputy-Secretary-General, and H.E. Mr Gianluca Greco, the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Government of Italy to the United Nations.
As the Producers Representative of the Hub’s Stakeholder Engagement and Networking Advisory (SENA) Group, the Secretary General of the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO), Arianna Giuliodori, contributed to the debate bringing the perspective of farmers into the discussion, emphasizing their unique insights and experiences within the context of food systems.
She began by stressing the urgency for immediate action, stating that there is no more time to waste: “Climate, and then COVID and now the conflicts…. there is always a reason to postpone decisions, but we need actions to be taken now!”
Looking back to the expectations of farmers and food producers regarding the 2021 Food Systems Summit, Ms Giuliodori highlighted their desire to establish an authentic multistakeholder approach to build trust and hope among producers, farmers, and other stakeholders to work together to design solutions that are suitable for on-the-ground implementation and can address global challenges. However, this vision has not been realized.
The WFO Secretary General also emphasized the farmers’ need for a transparent and equitable financing mechanism to ensure that financial resources effectively reach the producers, the people on the ground, and family farmers through their organisations. She also stressed the importance of empowering farmers through organised structures worldwide, making them key actors in driving changes in the Food Systems “because they are the people in the Food Systems and the Food Systems Summit was born as the Peoples’ Summit” – she passionately stated.
Concluding her remarks, Arianna Giuliodori, took the opportunity to remind the audience of the Producers’ Declaration to the Summit in 2021, signed by WFO and many other fellow food producers’ organisations at national, regional and global levels.
The declaration explicitly addresses the issue of excessive power concentration in the value chain, identified as a significant cause of inequalities and a hindrance to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) overall. “Our expectation as farmers is that by resuming the multistakeholder approach authentically we can sit around the same table and start designing solutions that can help us tackle these fundamental issues”.