Agriculture and food ministers from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies on Thursday (19 Aug) reaffirmed their commitment to an open, transparent, productive, sustainable, and resilient APEC food system by launching a new 10-year food security roadmap.
According to a World Bank policy brief, nearly 2.37 billion people lacked access to adequate food in 2020, a rise of 320 million in just one year,
A report by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) also found that the number of people facing acute food insecurity who need urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance hit a five-year high in 2020.
Against this backdrop, APEC ministers convened at their annual APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security yesterday, chaired by New Zealand Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor, and adopted the ‘APEC Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030‘.
The roadmap details goals and key action areas where APEC is well placed to help ensure people always have access to sufficient, safe, affordable, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
“While food security was already a challenge, COVID-19 showed us that there are vulnerabilities in our food systems and in our economies, and that our food systems need improvement – especially to deliver on the APEC 2040 vision of an open, dynamic, peaceful, and resilient region,” said Minister O’Connor in his opening remarks.
The roadmap, aligned with New Zealand’s APEC 2021 priorities as well as the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040, incorporates four key areas of focus:
- Digitalization and innovation: using digital levers to drive food sustainability
- Productivity: prioritizing systems that are fit for purpose
- Inclusivity: ensuring that underrepresented groups are set up to thrive
- Sustainability: tackling climate change and environmental challenges
“Besides our effort to address the challenges of food security, the roadmap also emphasizes efforts in increasing productivity and efficiency, minimizing food waste, mitigating and adapting to climate change as well as reducing costs and facilitating food trade,” added Philip Houlding, Chair of the APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security.
The group spearheaded the development of the roadmap, and drives public-private sector engagement on all aspects of food security in the region.
At the virtual meeting, the APEC Ministers heard from Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on closing the digital divide – especially in rural areas – and how this can help address some challenges faced by small-scale food producers.
They also acknowledged the benefits of digitalization, and discussed measures to promote innovation and improve the use of digital technology to ensure food security as the region recovers from COVID-19.
“The pandemic accelerated digital transformation and highlighted the abilities of an innovative digitally enabled economy to better recover and thrive,” said Minister O’Connor.
“But effective recovery also requires all elements of government to work together to deliver this transformation and enhance food security in the APEC region.”
Additionally, the APEC Ministers also highlighted the central role of the private sector throughout the food value chain with respect to production and processing, distribution, trade, and investment.
They encouraged deeper collaboration between policymakers and the private sector to ensure an innovative, refreshed food system to meet the food security challenges of the future.
“Without food security for all our people, we cannot achieve the other goals we have for our economies,” Minister O’Connor concluded.
