30 September 2022 | online event | 14:30-16:30 CEST. Launch of the HLPE-FSN note on Critical, emerging and enduring issues for food security and nutrition The HLPE-FSN Critical, emerging and enduring issues note was prepared in the context of an emerging global food crisis of enormous proportions, greatly magnified by the war in Ukraine, further accentuated by closely following upon the COVID-19 pandemic. Against this background, it is increasingly apparent that sound governance, a robust research agenda, a strong science-policy interface and appropriate financialresources are necessary to facilitate the much needed transformation of food systems in a manner that is equitable and sustainable. https://paepard.blogspot.com/2022/09/hlpe-fsn-note-on-critical-emerging-and.html

1. Critical, emerging and enduring issues
for food security and nutrition
Hilal Elver
member of the Steering Committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security
and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN)

2. The UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is the
foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental
platform for a broad range of committed stakeholders to
work together in a coordinated manner and in support of
country-led processes towards the elimination of
hunger and ensuring food security and nutrition for all, for
the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in
the context of national food security.

3. The High Level Panel of Experts
on Food Security and Nutrition
(HLPE-FSN) is the science-policy
interface of the CFS.
The HLPE-FSN provides
independent, comprehensive
and evidence-based analysis and
advice at the request of the CFS.

4. The CFS mandated its HLPE-FSN to “identify emerging
issues, and help members prioritize future actions and
attentions on key focal areas” and updated it every four
years.
With this document, the HLPE-FSN has now developed the
third note, which was renamed to include enduring issues,
recognizing that some of the key issues previously identified
as affecting food security and nutrition are still very pressing
and should therefore continue to inform the preparation of the
MYPoW for 2024-2027.
The note

5. The issues outlined in this note overlap and intersect in
important ways:
➢ Climate change, natural disasters and conflicts
undermine the goal of building more resilient food supply
chains. Climate change is also a contributing factor to
emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
➢ Vibrant urban and peri-urban food systems and equitable
conditions for food system workers are essential
components of resilient global food supply chains.
➢ And diverse knowledge and technologies are
necessary to address current and future challenges.
The note

6. Resilient
and equitable
supply
chains
Conflicts
and
fragility
Recognize
the role
and rights
of workers
FSN
CEEI

7. Building resilient and equitable supply
chains for FSN

8. Rationale
- Food supply chains are vulnerable against various disruptions
and risks, such as pandemics, extreme weather events and war.
- Supply chains are dominated by just a handful of large transnational
firms, highly concentrated with a just a few countries that are traded on
global markets.
- There are deep inequalities and unsustainable practices in the current
food distribution and marketing system. Actors with least power within
the supply chains bear disproportionate risks.
- It is vital making supply chains more inclusive and equitable, and
promote more coherent policies for supply chain resilience.

9. Building resilient and equitable supply chains for FSN
• What are the main vulnerabilities facing supply chains in the face of diverse
shocks and consequences for food systems actors
• What are the implications of inequities and power imbalances on FSN,
especially for marginalized groups
• Necessary characteristics to make supply chains more resilient
• Costs and benefits of different supply chain models (global, local, regional)
• Promising policy directions for supply chains, including for food trade,
employment, sustainability and FSN
• Role of different actors (states, private sector, civil society) in promoting more
resilient supply chains

10. Strengthening urban and peri-urban food
systems in the context of urbanization
and rural transformation

11. Rationale
- Almost 60 % of the global population currently live in urban centers,
and they are engine of growth and employment, but also have huge
challenges.
- They are experiencing higher rates of extreme weather events,
poverty, inequality and food insecurity.
- The informal food sector is critical to respond to local food security,
without any help.

12. Urban Peri urban food systems in the context of urban and rural
transformation
• Importance of equitable and accessible food systems for all actors
• Elements of resilient food supply chains, particularly inclusion of informal
economy
• How to support all dimensions of food security, particularly human rights and
sustainability
• Elements required for climate change and pandemic resistant, self-sufficient, and
resilient cities
• Importance of protecting farmland and land tenure against competing
interests
• Benefits and challenges of local/territorial markets
• How to foster inclusive, transparent, participatory citizen engagement

13. Conflicts and the fragility of food systems

14. Rationale
- In 2021, 79% of people experiencing acute hunger were living in
countries affected by conflict
- There are more than 49 million people, living in over 3 dozen countries
that are just one step away from the declaration of famine
- When conflict meets with other problems such as climate emergency,
infectious diseases, and competition to access to resources severe food
insecurity deepens
- Besides ongoing conflicts everywhere, the current war in Ukraine is
exacerbating global food systems challenges to an unpresented level

15. Conflicts and fragility of food systems
• Protect the right to food in conflict situations
• Ensure access to humanitarian assistance
• Fight against gender-based violence, and inequality
• Role of and support for local food systems
• Empower locals to engage in food system transformation
• How to end using starvation as a weapon of war and the importance of
humanitarian law
• What are the impacts of economic sanctions on FSN

16. Revitalizing climate policies for FSN

17. Rationale
- Climate change remains a critical and enduring global threat to FSN.
- Food systems are deeply impacted by climate change, at the same time
food systems continue to be a significant source of GHG emissions.
- Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate, coordinate and revise existing
food policies, with recent global climate change commitments, as well
as IPCC’s recent scientific information with principles of climate
justice, to prioritize rights and livelihoods of vulnerable groups in
relation to FNS.

18. Revitalizing climate policies
• Evaluate mitigation and adaptation policies to address FSN, including post-
production stages and food supply chains
• Prioritize most affected regions and population against the negative impact of
climate on FSN
• Evaluate new technologies for potential benefits and challenges
• Evaluate adaptation of circular economy
• Recognize role of women and youth in ensuring FSN in a warming world
• Foster ecosystem protection

19. Recognizing the role and rights
of food system workers

20. Rationale
- Despite their contribution to entire food systems, workers have long been
underpaid and undervalued, facing occupational hazards, poverty and
food insecurity
- More recently the “gig economy” workers, who are working in precarious
conditions, have been particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic
- Particularly children, women and undocumented migrants are working
dire conditions, and rarely their rights are protected

21. Recognizing the role and rights of food systems workers
• Improve living and working conditions of all food systems workers
• Improve conditions of the unpaid family members (care work)
• The role of business and human rights principles in protecting supply chain
workers and plantation workers
• Enhance the role and capacity of unions
• The intersection of human rights and labor law
• Link the right to food and right to work, and cooperate with international
organizations addressing human rights and labor rights
• Eliminate the root causes of child labor
• Extend social protection systems to the informal sector

22. Building a meaningful interface for diverse
knowledges, technologies and practices for FSN

23. Rationale
- Food systems are diverse, embracing a range of knowledge systems and
technologies, from modern approaches to more traditional and
indigenous practices.
- Choosing a particular knowledge system raises critical questions of
power relations within food system and shaping research and policy
debates for transformation of food systems.
- Diverse knowledge systems help to democratization of knowledge
production and strengthening of grassroots/indigenous research.
- It is important to bridge the gap between multiple forms of knowledge
in equitable and integrated ways, respecting local understanding, in order
to improve the resilience of food systems and support enhanced food
security and nutrition for all.

24. Building interface for diverse knowledge, technologies, and practices
• Establish engagement between indigenous and mainstream scientific
knowledge systems
• Equitable, easy access to knowledge for small holder farmers, women,
indigenous and local communities
• Strategies to make local/traditional knowledge and agricultural heritage
equally authoritative
• Harness research, education and extension systems to transform food
systems
• Reduce inequalities and enhance social equity in access to digital resources,
and new technologies

25. Emerging and re-emerging
infectious diseases and
other biological hazard
events challenging FSN

26. Rationale
- The unprecedented rate of infectious disease emergence and the need to
sustainably feed the global population represent two of the most
formidable ecological and public health challenges of the twenty-first
century.
- Several recent reports have outlined the risk of biological hazards and
Covid 19 is the 6th zoonotic epidemic since 1980.
- The frequency and severity of these events is increasing as people
encroach on wildlife habitats and livestock and fish production
intensifies.
- The rise of anti-microbial resistance fueled by the misuse of
antibiotics, an added dimension of the increased use of pesticides
threatening human nutrition and health.

27. Infectious diseases and other biological hazards challenging FSN
• Examine how infectious diseases affect food system stability, resilience, and
sustainability
• Contribution of various levels of social inequities for emerging infectious
diseases
• Evaluate the role and impact of agricultural practices on spread of new
infectious diseases
• How food practices and systems help respond to infectious diseases
• How the impact of consumer and social behavior affects infectious diseases
• Impact of labor-intensive food production on spreading to infectious diseases
• Implications of infectious diseases for the six dimensions of FSN

28. UNSG Antonio Guterres
“We need to re-think how we see and value food – not simply as a
commodity to be traded, but as a right that every person shares. ”
UN Food Systems Summit, September 2021

29. HLPE-FSN @hlpe_cfs
High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and
Nutrition (HLPE-FSN)
www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe
Thank you!