Remarks by the WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain, as delivered at the launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 24 July 2024
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to you all.
As you have heard from our previous speakers, one thing is very clear from the latest edition of the State of Food Security report: the world is badly off-track in our efforts to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.
Despite our collective commitment, with only six years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, more countries are on a path to miss the 2030 global nutrition targets than reach them.
We produce enough food each year to feed everyone on our planet, yet hundreds of millions are still going hungry. This is completely unacceptable and we must do better.
The global systems which produce and distribute nutritious foods are often undermined by economic and social inequalities.
Many families simply cannot afford the soaring costs of basic items.
In the past four years, since the Covid-19 pandemic swept the globe, food prices have soared by at least 50 percent in nearly 40 countries.
In 25 nations, these costs have skyrocketed by 100 percent or more.
At the same time, hunger and malnutrition repeatedly stalk the same families and communities, shattering any prospects they have for lasting economic and social development.
Excellencies: it doesn’t have to be this way.
I am confident we can break this vicious cycle, and end hunger for good, if we work together, to rally the resources and the political will needed to invest in proven solutions in food insecurity.
We have the collective skills, expertise and scientific know-how to meet the Agenda 2030
But we urgently need increased funds to invest, at scale, in the programs required to achieve them.
Most of the people who endure the blight of chronic hunger live in middle or lower-income countries.
It is not a lack of commitment that prevents their national governments from making the required investments.
Many of these nations are grappling with unsustainable debt burdens.
Often, they are spending more on servicing debt repayments, than they spend on health, education and other essential services.
They cannot afford to build the foundations of long-term food security, by stepping-up investments in school meals, social protection, and climate- resilient programmes.
The world’s leading economies must help to close this finance gap: so I commend Brazil for focusing the G20 Presidency on tackling the root causes of hunger and poverty.
We all need to work together to design and mobilize innovative funding models, which can deliver increased, and more effective, cost-effective financing for food security.
Debt swaps are one important instrument we can use to scale-up the level of resources available.
But we also need ambitious new partnerships that will bring together governments, international financial institutions and the private sector, civil society, and many others, to fuel our collective progress.
Excellencies: hunger and malnutrition are not inevitable, but we must never think that they are.
With collaboration, and determination, we can – and we must – get back on a path to achieving Zero Hunger and the other SDGs by 2030.
This is our shared destination, so let’s renew our shared commitment in reaching it.
Together, we will build a future where every family, everywhere, is able to live in dignity.
Thank you.
END