Zambia to participate in United Nations Food Systems Summit

On 23 September 2021, His Excellency Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Republic of Zambia will join other Heads of State and Government at the Food Systems Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the 76th UN General Assembly in New York, United States of America.

“Climate shocks, limited crop and food diversity, high pests and disease burden and post-harvest food losses in addition to low intake of nutritious foods; all contribute towards Zambia’s food system challenges which must be addressed in order end hunger as the springboard for achieving all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The Summit is a platform for Zambia and other nations to recommit to the 2030 sustainable Development Goals only this time to also state actionable commitments that ensure everyone Zambian has access to affordable and nutritious foods for a healthy and productive people,” said Dr. Coumba Mar Gadio, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Zambia.

The Summit was conceived in 2019 by the UN Secretary-General as a “bottom-up” process to discuss and explore ways to achieve sustainable food systems by 2030. The solutions would come from dialogues between actors at all levels of the food system – the world’s 500 million small farmers, refugees, governments, NGOs, corporations, universities and think-tanks. The Summit is intended to catalyse momentum to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. The Food Systems Summit is open to all people and its success depends on the engagement of citizens all over the world.

Under the leadership of the National Dialogue Convener, Zambia has conducted several district, provincial and national dialogues to solicit inputs from various stakeholders in developing a blueprint outlining the country’s commitments and transformative food systems pathways, actionable by the Zambian Government.  

The preparation for Zambia’s participation at the Summit is being supported by the United Nations, cooperating partners, experts in line ministries, academia, and civil society under the National Food and Nutrition Commission as Secretariat.

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More information about the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and list of Advisory Committee and Scientific Group members can be found online: https://www.un.org/foodsystemssummit

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