Tag: Sustainable Development Goals

The UN agency has published its latest eagerly awaited Food Price Index, the barometer that tracks monthly changes in the international prices of five food commodities: cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meat, and sugar. 

The index averaged 140.9 points in July, or 8.6 points down from June. The decline was led by double-digit percentage drops in the cost of vegetable oils but also cereals, with the recent UN-brokered deal on Ukrainian grain exports a contributing factor. 

Welcome but wary 

“The decline in food commodity prices from very high levels is welcome, especially when seen from a food access viewpoint,” said Maximo Torero, FAO Chief Economist. 

“However, many uncertainties remain, including high fertilizer prices that can impact future production prospects and farmers’ livelihoods, a bleak global economic outlook, and currency movements, all of which pose serious strains for global food security.”  

In July, FAO’s Vegetable Price Index decreased by 19.2 per cent compared to June, marking a 10-month low. International quotations for all oil types fell, the agency said, with palm oil prices declining due to prospects of ample export availability out of Indonesia, for example.   

Additionally, sunflower oil prices also dropped markedly amid subdued global import demand, despite continued logistical uncertainties in the Black Sea region. Vegetable oil values were also pushed down by lower crude oil prices. 

Black Sea export deal 

The Cereal Price Index also reflected an 11.5 per cent decline last month, though remaining 16.6 per cent above July 2021.  Prices of all cereals in the index declined, led by wheat.   

World wheat prices dropped by as much as 14.5 per cent, FAO said, partly in reaction to the Russia-Ukraine deal on grain exports from key Black Sea ports, and also because of seasonal availability from ongoing harvests in the northern hemisphere. 

July also saw an 11.2 per cent decline in coarse grain prices.  Maize was down 10.7 per cent, again due in part to the Black Sea Grain Initiative and increased seasonal availabilities in Argentina and Brazil. Additionally, international rice prices also declined for the first time this year. 

Sweet news 

The Sugar Price Index fell by nearly four per cent, amid concerns over demand prospects due to expectations of a further global economic slowdown, a weakening in Brazil’s currency, the real, and lower ethanol prices resulting in greater sugar production there than previously expected.  

The downward trend was also influenced by indications of greater exports and favourable production prospects in India. Meanwhile, the hot and dry weather in European Union countries also sparked concerns over sugar beet yields and prevented sharper declines. 

FAO further reported that the Dairy Price Index decreased 2.5 per cent “amid lacklustre trading activity”, yet still averaged 25.4 per cent above last July. 

While the prices of milk powders and butter declined, cheese prices remained stable, boosted by demand in European tourism destinations. 

Mixed picture for meat 

Meat prices also continued the downward trend, dropping by half a per cent from June due to weakening import demands. However, poultry prices reached an all-time high, boosted by firm import demand and tight supplies due to Avian influenza outbreaks in the northern hemisphere. 

The FAO Meat Price Index was also down in July, by 0.5 percent from June, due to weakening import demand for bovine, ovine and pig meats. By contrast, international poultry meat prices reached an all-time high, underpinned by firm global import demand and tight supplies due to Avian influenza outbreaks in the northern hemisphere.  

Factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and ongoing conflicts resulted in nearly a billion people going hungry last year, he said. 

Meanwhile, the World Bank has warned that the conflict in Ukraine will plunge an additional 95 million people into extreme poverty, and 50 million into severe hunger, this year.  

Already falling short 

“Frankly, we were already falling short of meeting our food-security targets, prior to 2020. However, the situation is now critical,” said Mr. Shahid.  

“The shocks of multiple global crises have weakened our institutions, our economies, and challenged our ability to effectively respond.” 

He stressed that despite this bleak picture, countries cannot lose hope.  They must collectively mobilize to alleviate global hunger and malnutrition, and also address the factors that cause them.  

Mr. Shahid also highlighted the need to prioritize food security in the world’s least developed countries, landlocked developing nations, and small island developing states, whose citizens “are typically forced to spend a larger share of their income on basic necessities, including food, and are thus disproportionately affected by rising food prices.” 

Interconnectedness, not isolation 

These countries also must receive help in achieving sustainable transformation of their food systems, in line with recommendations from the UN Food Systems Summit held last year. 

Mr. Shahid said as countries implement more sustainable and environmentally responsible food-practices, they must also approach food security as part of a broader multilateral agenda that both recognizes the interconnectedness of today’s challenges, and the futility of trying to solve them unilaterally or in isolation.  

Food systems must be able to provide affordable healthy diets that are sustainable and inclusive. They must also become a powerful driving force towards ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. 

“Among the actions that we must immediately take include scaling up climate resilience across food systems, strengthening food environments and changing consumer behaviour to promote dietary patterns with positive impacts on human health and the environment,” he said. 

“Solving food security also requires us to stop conflicts and pandemics that disrupt supply chains; to repair our relationship with nature, and secure sustainable agriculture; and to strengthen the global institutions working to alleviate poverty and hunger.”    

A ‘critical moment’ 

Mr. Shahid convened the high-level special event alongside the Committee on World Food Security, and the UN Secretary General’s Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance. 

In a video message to the meeting, UN chief António Guterres commended the partners for joining forces at what he called “this critical moment”, noting that the number of people who are severely food insecure has doubled in the last two years. 

“We face a real risk of multiple famines this year.  And next year could be even worse.   But we can avoid this catastrophe if we act now,” said Mr. Guterres. 

The Secretary-General underscored the need to immediately reintegrate Ukraine’s food production, and Russia’s food and fertilizer, into world markets, and keeping global trade open. 

 He also called for tackling the finance crisis in the developing world, and urgently unlocking resources to enhance social protection and support smallholder farmers to increase productivity and self-reliance.   

 Countries must also transform food systems at every level, in order to put affordable, healthy and sustainable diets within reach of everyone, everywhere.   

“We have advanced the substantive programme of the [Economic and Social] Council (ECOSOC) and initiated concrete foundational action to implement the decisions of the General Assembly” in resolutions on strengthening the HLPF and ECOSOC, said the body’s president, Collen Kelapile.

Urgency and ambition

Although the COVID pandemic continues, “we are moving on in the road to recovery and…looking far ahead, beyond today’s daunting challenges and crises,” he said. 

Reversing the pandemic’s negative impacts on the likelihood of reaching the ambitious SDGs; transforming socio-economic and financial systems; addressing the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine on food security and energy supply; and halting climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, are “a calling we must work much harder to achieve,” the ECOSOC president added.

He reminded that we have the tools and means, but needed to work “together in solidarity” as a “global family”.

Mr. Kelapile said the new Ministerial Declaration, which the meeting adopted by consensus, provides an “unwavering commitment to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. 

Overarching calls

Sharing some of the main messages of the HLPF, he described today’s challenges as a threat to the SDGs but also an opportunity for renewed multilateral action and the quest for innovative solutions.

And while the pandemic has exposed inequalities between and within countries, it has also underscored the importance of universal healthcare coverage supported by proper healthcare systems – without which, “there can be no sustainable development”.

The ECOSOC President spoke about the need to bridge the financing gap by reforming international debt and taxation architecture.

He also underscored that education is “a human right and a common public good, not a privilege,” noting the upcoming Transforming Education Summit in September to address obstacles that hinder SDG-4.

Mr. Kelapile reminded that no country has achieved gender equality and that the needs of women and girls must be addressed “more comprehensively” to build back better, including eradicating violence against women and implementing national gender budgets.

He then stressed the importance of engaging local authorities for “an inclusive implementation and review of the 2030 Agenda” while pointing out that vaccine equity and production in developing countries “is critical to economic recovery”.

Turning to the environment, the ECOSOC chief highlighted that a “whole-of-society” approach was required to effectively address global deforestation, land degradation, biodiversity loss, poverty eradication, food insecurity and climate change, adding that the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, showed that there are still opportunities for comprehensive ocean action.

Ground for optimism

“I am particularly heartened that during this HLPF we launched preparations for the 2023 SDG Summit to be held in September 2023 at the mid-term point of implementation of the 2030 Agenda”, said Mr. Kelapile. 

Pointing to HLPF debates and the Ministerial Declaration, he saw “strong grounds for optimism”. 

“Let us all go back to our countries encouraged and re-invigorated, to continue efforts to recover from this pandemic and build back better through the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs,” concluded the ECOSOC President.

‘Special day’

“Today was a special day,” Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) told the meeting, outlining how the morning session discussed ideas on how to improve multilateralism and make it more inclusive, networked and effective.

And afternoon discussions looked in detail at the pandemic’s public health response; finance and debt relief; and climate change and social protection, including labor rights and education.

“We studied future scenarios to ensure sustainable development and what we can do now to make our future better…[and] sustainable development paths, long-term vision and scenarios,” said the DESA chief.

Unity ‘laid out’

The forum has demonstrated that if we are well informed of demographic, social and environmental changes that are coming our way in the years ahead, “we can anticipate them and make the needed policy changes now,” he observed.

Against that backdrop, he expressed pride in seeing that the Ministerial Declaration was adopted to provide clear guidance on how to address future challenges.

“Our unity is laid out in great detail in the Ministerial Declaration, and I congratulate you on this achievement. I am pleased that the strong commitment to the fulfillment of the goals that we set in 2015 is still vibrant. This will accelerate our travel on our common road to recovery and resilience,” Mr. Liu concluded.