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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was off-track to end world hunger and malnutrition by 2030. The decline in the number of hungry people in the world had reversed its course in 2014 – wiping away decades of progress. More than
690 million people were chronically undernourished in 2019. Across the planet, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to tip over 130 million more people into chronic hunger by the end of 2020 as it intensifies the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food
systems.
Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in all its forms (including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity) is not only about securing enough food to survive - food on our tables must also be nutritious.
A global switch to healthy diets would help check the backslide into hunger and malnutrition, and also contribute to the mitigation of climate change. The transformation of our food systems to provide affordable healthy diets could reduce
direct and indirect health costs by up to 97 percent and slash the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions by 41 percent to 74 percent by 2030.
On 25 November 2020 at 10h30 (Rome time),
FAO is organizing a special high-level seminar
to make an urgent call on looking afresh at how to consolidate and channel our knowledge and stimulate innovative thinking and actions to expedite agri-food systems transformations to achieve healthy diets for all. A distinguished
and expert panel of global leaders will focus specifically on the following aspects:
• Access to healthy diets for all, family health and the role of women
• How to prevent food loss and waste as an urgent action
• How to use innovation for food and agriculture
• What we do to link the needed agri-food transformation to the macroeconomics packages being implemented by countries
Speakers:
• QU Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, United Nations Secretary-• General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development
• Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians, SDG Advocate
• Her Royal Highness, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand
• Her Excellency Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko – African Union Commissioner
• Her Excellency Cecilia Morel, First Lady of Chile
• Her Excellency Maria Juliana Ruiz, First Lady of Colombia
• Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO
Follow the event: Journalists can follow the event via live webcast
here.
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