21/09/21

食品系统峰会之后,科学家敦促“走话”

Food warehouse
Stacks of flour at a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is expected that more than 85 countries at the UN Food Systems Summit this week will pledge their commitment to transforming food systems. Copyright:Kaukab Jhumra Smith/USAID,,,,(2.0 CC通过数控)。This photo has been cropped.

Speed read

  • 超过85个国家保证改变食品系统
  • 科学家动员在虚拟联合国峰会之后监视行动
  • Country roadmaps ‘key to success’ after 18-month process

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来自85个国家的领导人将保证他们致力于改变食物systems at the UN Food Systems Summit this week, but scientists say close monitoring of their actions beyond the talks will be the true test of success.

这summit, being held virtually during the UN General Assembly high-level week in New York, is expected to include pledges on healthy meals for all schoolchildren, food waste reduction, and harnessing农业innovation to meetclimate目标。

In the 18 months leading up to the event on Thursday, 148 countries have hosted national dialogues with key actors across food systems to develop national strategies for more resilient and sustainable food systems, the UN said, touting the summit as an “historic opportunity” to put global development goals back on track.

“My fears are that the ‘country commitments’ will be so vague and unmeasurable that they provide no basis for holding governments and companies to account.”

奥克兰大学人口营养与全球健康教授博伊德·斯威本(Boyd Swinburn)

“After 18 long months, the world is on the brink of a summit that aims to change the trajectory of global progress, uniting everyone in a shared commitment to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals and the fundamental human rights at their core,” said Agnes Kalibata, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for the summit, in astatement周一发行。

But many scientists are concerned that national commitments — which will not be legally binding — will be hollow unless accountability mechanisms are established.

Boyd Swinburn, professor of population nutrition and global health at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said: “My fears are that the ‘country commitments’ will be so vague and unmeasurable that they provide no basis for holding governments and companies to account.”

Swinburn, who leads the international信息network, which tracks food policy implementation, is one of a number of scientists behind a newAccountability Pact,,,,to monitor governments’ actions beyond the summit. The pact has garnered the support of more than 250 scientists worldwide.

Swinburn说:“责任协议是向世界各地的科学家呼吁加入现有的团体网络监测行动以改善食品系统并促进我们的努力,以便我们将相关的研究纳入政策表上。”

Experts in nutrition and agriculture writing in the journal全球粮食安全this month, called for an “accountability mechanism tied to guaranteed investments” to ensure pledges made at the summit are followed through. They said it should be supported by a scientific body with a “robust monitoring system” that openly evaluates evidence, “with indicators and benchmarks that the world can feasibly track.”

国际食品政策研究所的高级研究协调员,文章的作者之一Namukolo Covic表示,这种机制对于不仅持有政府,而且对商业企业的负担至关重要。

summit has been boycotted许多公民社会团体和声称大型农业综合企业的科学家是峰会过程不可或缺的,而牺牲了小规模的生产者和土著人民,这是联合国强烈否认的主张。

“If this is supposed to be an inclusive process, it means [private companies] might find entry points to contribute to the process, but what might be those accountability mechanisms to ensure that they are contributing positively to the transformation process?” asked Namukolo.

这Zambian nutritionist, who was closely involved in the UN summit process, believes that the implementation of national roadmaps will be paramount if real change is to be seen beyond the talks.*

“[The summit’s] success will be determined by how successful the country roadmaps become,” Namukolo said. “All the changes that we wish for … at the global level will only be realised based on what actions are taken by individual countries, by communities, by individuals like you and me.”

Qu Dongyu,,,,director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said the FAO would be “taking the lead to implement follow-up actions after the summit”, but added: “Transforming our global agri-food systems rests ultimately with actions at the country and local levels.”

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Outlining the issues underpinning the need for food systems change, he said: “After decades of decline, the number of hungry people has been growing for the past five years, now amounting to as many as8.11亿人

“At the same time, obesity and other non-communicable diseases are ever-growing global problems … Many of the current agri-food practices are also exacting a heavy toll on our planet.”

To ensure that the summit focuses on solutions to these challenges, and is “more than a talking-shop”, existing mechanisms such as the Committee on Global Food security must be utilised, says Nitya Rao, director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, in the UK. “Solutions are known, what is needed is the buy-in from different stakeholders,” she said.

Outlining what she hopes to see result from the summit, she said: “We need a people-centric approach to food systems that acknowledges diversity and inequality, and seeks to radically transform [food systems] in favour of the most marginal. It needs to recognise women’s and indigenous people’s knowledges and support multiple, context-specific pathways towards sustainability.”

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.

* This article was corrected on 22 September 2021 to clarify that Namukolo Covic is from Zambia, not Ethiopia where she is currently based.

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