Warm greetings to all and my hearty appreciation for your efforts. At the outset, I would like to thank UN ESCAP Asia and the Pacific for taking a lead role in convening this dialogue, in coordination with other UN partners.
As your discussions have highlighted, sustainable food systems are at the heart of sustainable development. They are critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, on hunger, and SDG 3, on health and well-being for all.
But as with health, building food systems that are sustainable, and which work for the benefit of all, will positively impact all areas of development, from ending poverty, to increasing access to safe and clean water and reducing greenhouse emissions.
I welcome the intense global attention that food systems are receiving in the lead up to the first UN Food Systems Summit.
As you have expressed, the Summit will provide a global platform for high-level political commitment and concrete actions towards food system transformation, enabling the consumption of diets that are healthier, safer, more nature friendly, economically equitable and socially just.
The COVID-19 pandemic has radically exacerbated the world’s ongoing food security and nutrition crisis, causing economic and social systems shocks, disruptions in food supply and issues with food safety.
As the anchor agency for Action Track 2, WHO recognizes the need for stakeholders to facilitate a transition towards diets that are more nutritious, and which require fewer resources to produce and transport while minimizing food waste.
As you have noted, dietary risk factors cause 11 million premature deaths globally every year, many of them in Asia and the Pacific.
While hunger and undernutrition persist, diet-related health conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer are rising.
Increasingly, communities face a double burden of malnutrition, where both undernutrition and overweight/obesity are prevalent.
Current food policies, food industry practices and shifting consumer preferences are driving overconsumption and dramatic growth in consumption of highly processed foods and beverages.
WHO continues to support Member States in Asia, the Pacific and beyond to implement high impact interventions that encourage the consumption of healthy foods and beverages, for example by restricting marketing, especially to children; enhancing access to nutritional information through labelling; and applying fiscal nudges.
WHO continues to support Member States in other key areas of action, for example by working across sectors to implement Codex standards and enhance food safety, and by applying a “One Health” approach to what is one of the 21st century’s greatest threats to health and development: antimicrobial resistance.
I am pleased that this dialogue has consolidated regional views, perspectives and experiences, and will chart the path forward, towards the Food Systems Summit.
We have gained insights from national dialogues covering each of the five action tracks, providing direction to stakeholders and development platforms to support Member States in each of the cross-cutting areas:
First, strengthening urban agriculture and nutrition;
Second, enhancing local food production and short value chains which improve access to nutritious foods;
Third, leveraging social protection systems to enhance food security and nutrition outcomes;
And fourth, upgrading surveillance systems to monitor nutrition and food security.
WHO and partner UN agencies, as well as other regional bodies in Asia and the Pacific, stand ready to support Member States to implement your recommendations.
In addition to anchoring Action Track 2, WHO will continue to liase with all other action tracks, and I look forward to our ongoing collaboration.
Together, we must drive transformative change to build a world in which healthy, sustainable and inclusive food systems allow both people and planet to thrive.
Thank you.