G20 Agriculture Ministers Acknowledge Food Security and CFS

The G20 Agriculture Ministers met in Xi’an, China, on June 3rd, 2016, to discuss how G20 members can promote food security, nutrition, sustainable agricultural growth, and rural development worldwide. G20 members also discussed how they can contribute towards building an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy to fully achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This includes eradicating hunger and extreme poverty.

A meeting Communiqué was created as a result of the meeting, which outlines a series of clauses that the G20 Agriculture Ministers have agreed to focus on going forward. This includes CFS as stated;

“[G20 Agriculture Ministers] acknowledge that food security is affected by the increasingly complex and variable factors and requires comprehensive and coordinated governance measures and a multi-tiered and multi-faceted system. We encourage coordination in this regard and support the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and international and regional organizations in their efforts to foster even closer and more effective partnerships, and promote actions by all stakeholders at global, regional and national levels, taking into account national conditions, needs and expectations. We maintain that G20 members should coordinate and continue to play a leading role in identifying issues of global concern, coordinate efforts, and in collaboration with organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) , work in an innovative and prioritized manner, to further contribute to the improvement of local, national, regional, and global food security and nutrition. To strengthen global food security efforts and policy coordination, we encourage the development and optimization of national agriculture and food security strategies and plans aimed at improving effectiveness and efficiency in the agrifood sector, including through the reduction of food loss and waste.”