By Abdulrahman Abdullahi
The Federal Government has initiated ways to identify new actions and partnerships that are critical to developing a sustainable, healthier, all-inclusive and equitable food systems in the country.
The National Convener of the UN Food Systems Summit Dialogue for Nigeria, Mrs Olusola Idowu made this known in her welcome remarks at the inception ceremony held in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Idowu explained that the summit among other things seeks to carefully examine the five action tracks of the United Nation’s Food Systems from a wide range of backgrounds and to review the country’s existing initiatives in a bid to birth a sustainable food system.
She noted that the inception dialogue was first in the series of national dialogues to be organised in line with the call by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.
Guterres in 2019 had called on world leaders to take part in the food systems summit as part of the decades of action aimed to achieve the sustainable development goals, SDG by 2030.
Idowu who also doubles as the Permanent Secretary, Budget and National Planning of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning underscored that the UN’s Food Systems Summit was required to launch new bold actions to deliver progress on all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) all of which said added relate to some extent ways to achieve sustainable and inclusive food systems.
“In line with this call the UN member states are encouraged to organize food system dialogues prior to the global summit planned to hold in September 2021, she said.
Shedding more light on the event, the Perm Sec revealed that the dialogues will hold in 3 levels which are the inception, exploration and consolidation dialogues.
She said that the dialogue will identify food systems challenges from multiple perspectives while the exploration dialogue was designed to hold in the six geo-political zones, states and cities.
“This dialogue will provide opportunities to harness promising approaches to solving food crises from diverse stakeholders that are critical to the food system in Nigeria
“Meanwhile, the consolidation dialogue will provide an avenue for various cross-section of stakeholders to exchange views on the pathway towards sustainable national food systems, identify intentions and commitment of different food system actors” she averred
The National Convener also divulged that the nation’s dialogue was guided by the UN’s 5 action tracks which include: ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, shifting to sustainable consumption patterns, boosting nature’s positive production, advancing equitable livelihood and Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.
“The action tracks are required to draw from the expertise of actors from across the world’s food systems, we are also expected to collectively explore how key cutting levers of change such as human right, finance innovation, and empowerment of women and young people can be mobilised to meet the summit’s objectives,” she added.