16 January 2016: The 2016 Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) resulted in a Communiqué from the agriculture ministers of 65 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The ministers call for ensuring food security for cities and rural areas through: sustainable, productive and profitable agriculture; efficient, reliable supply and value chains; and vibrant rural areas.
The Communiqué underscores the contribution of agriculture to successful urbanization, and recommends prioritizing food security on the global agenda, including in national implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Group of 20 (G20) Action Plan on Food Security and Sustainable Food Systems, as well as in the expected New Urban Agenda.
GFFA 2016 was organized by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and took place from 14-16 January 2016, in Berlin, Germany, under the theme, ‘How to feed our cities? Agriculture and rural areas in an era of urbanization.’ It focused on three aspects of urban food security: modern, sustainable agricultural production; efficient supply chains; and vibrant rural areas to ensure an adequate supply of healthy, diverse and sustainable food. The Communiqué elaborates on the importance of creating a political, economic and social framework to address these areas, including actions on securing access to land, making agriculture more resilient and promoting sustainable natural resources management.
In a statement to the Forum, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “Ensuring that everyone in expanding urban areas has access to nutritious food is critical to achieving the goal of Zero Hunger set out in the 2030 Agenda.” He underscored the role of resilient, health-focused food systems in nourishing the environment, advancing local development and promoting women’s empowerment and social justice, and called for boosting efforts to prevent food losses and waste.
High-level panels convened during the Forum on: urban food security and nutrition issues within the context of SDG 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable); and the contribution of rural areas to agriculture and food supply systems, including within the context of the Third UN Conference on Housing and Urban Development (Habitat III) and the New Urban Agenda to be developed by the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) convened an expert panel on ‘Promotion of urban food security and nutrition through redistribution of food at risk of loss or waste.’ The panel considered methodologies to assess the impact of food losses and waste on nutrition, the potential contribution of food recovery and redistribution to food security and nutrition in cities and urban areas and ways to ensure that food remains safe and nutritious for human consumption, among other topics.
Ministers attending the Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Summit, which convened on the final day of the GFFA, produced the final Communiqué. [GFFA Website] [GFFA Press Releases] [UN Secretary-General Statement] [FAO Event Website]