Item 3: Food Systems Transformation

Madam/Mr Chair,

1. I am honoured to speak on behalf of the European Union and its 27 Member States.
2. Today we celebrate International Rural Women’s Day. Women account for a substantial proportion of the agricultural labour force. At the same time, women and girls in rural areas suffer disproportionately from food insecurity, malnutrition and multi-dimensional poverty. More needs to be done to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of food security and nutrition!
3. Hunger and other forms of malnutrition are on the rise and the COVID-19 pandemic is adding to the significant and multiple challenges the world is already facing. This calls for an urgent and collective response. We need context-based solutions and a holistic and inclusive approach to our food systems, encompassing also the “One Health” approach. Sustainable and resilient food systems have a key role to play in achieving the 2030 Agenda!
4. We reaffirm our full commitment to the work of the CFS and its key role in fostering the transformation towards sustainable food systems. We value, in particular, its ongoing policy convergence processes on 'Food Systems for Nutrition’ and 'Agroecological and other Innovative Approaches’, which will strengthen science- and evidence-based policies and actions. We look forward to a successful and ambitious outcome of these processes and the adoption of their outputs in 2021.
5. We also reiterate our commitment to continue promoting the uptake and implementation of previously adopted CFS voluntary guidelines and policy recommendations and encourage RBA’s and all other stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society, to do the same.
6. We see the UN Food Systems Summit as a real landmark for the transformation of today's food systems. We support the inclusive, bottom-up multi-stakeholder approach to the preparation of the Summit and we welcome that the Summit will build on existing global platforms, notably the CFS and the High Level Panel of Experts for food security and nutrition (HLPE). The HLPE reports will provide strong evidencebased input to the upcoming dialogues and action-track work.
7. In conclusion, we are firmly committed to reaching an ambitious outcome from the Food Systems Summit, with a clear actionable agenda that will also fully acknowledge the outputs of the ongoing CFS workstreams on ‘Food Systems for Nutrition’ and ‘Agroecological and other Innovative Approaches’.

Thank you, Madam/Mr Chair.