10 October 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Famine doesn’t occur overnight. It can be prevented. How is it possible then, that in this day and age, people still suffer from severe and lasting food insecurity? And it is not necessarily the availability of basic resources, though, inequalities are on the rise within and among countries. We have enough food around the globe to feed the world. The issue is one of will. Of goodwill and of our priorities.

The war in Ukraine has come crashing down on our food and trade networks, triggering a global food crisis not seen before.

Efforts are underway to keep those networks open, but a long road stretches ahead. I applaud the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has restored the flow of essential goods. I also commend the Secretary-General’s Global Response Group for giving us timely analyses and recommendations. We can also rely on the General Assembly’s “State of global food insecurity” resolution. It urges the international community to support the states most affected by hunger.

We are facing interlocking challenges everywhere in the world. They require integrated, multidimensional solutions: How can limiting global warming prevent future famines? How can peacebuilding enhance food security? How can more trust and more solidarity overcome hunger in the world?

I urge Member States and international financial institutions to commit resources to that great aspiration. We must scale up support to strengthen the countries’ capacity to adapt to climate variability. How else can we enable the consolidation of food reserve systems? How else to develop strategic regional value chains?

Finally, in fighting hunger we should rely on data, on scientific evidence. We have a good blueprint for that: the IPCC. Let us replicate that to synthesize global knowledge. To create open science mechanisms for evaluating the processes.

Dear Friends,

We have jointly adopted goals, strategies, commitments and well crafted programs. And still, the number of people at the verge of hunger is on the rise. An old Hungarian proverb says: “One cannot eat one’s fill on words alone.” We should never forget that.

With that wisdom on my mind, I wish you an impactful session, leading to substantial action.

I thank you.