FAO Regional Conference for Asia-Pacific discusses responses
and recovery work on COVID-19 and hunger

 As COVID-19
continues to threaten lives and livelihoods across many countries of the
Asia-Pacific region, it has led to setbacks in the fight to end hunger and
malnutrition.

In this context,
the 35th Session of the FAO Asia and Pacific Regional Conference
(#APRC35), hosted virtually by the Royal Government of Bhutan, started today with
representatives from 46 countries examining the present situation of the
region's food security, with a particular emphasis on implications linked to
the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on food systems region-wide.

More than 400
delegates are expected to participate in the Conference, including
representatives from the private sector, civil society, academia and technical
experts in the food and agriculture sectors. All sessions of the conference can
be followed live via Webcast. The Timetable can be
found here and the Annotated Agenda is
here.

Fighting two pandemics require new thinking and actions

The Asia-Pacific
region is home to more than half of the world's undernourished people, and with
the impacts of COVID-19 the number of hungry people in Southern Asia could rise
by nearly a third to 330 million by 2030, the Sustainable Development Goal
deadline set by the global community to eliminate hunger and malnutrition in
all its forms.

From Afghanistan
and Iran in the west, across populous South and East Asia, and far out into the
Pacific Islands, new ways and approaches will be needed to battle back from
these two pandemics: COVID-19 and hunger. Climate change is another aggravating
factor menacing efforts to increase resilience across our food systems.

"We must come
to terms with what is before us and recognize that the world and our region has
changed. We must find new ways to move forward and ensure sustainable food
security in the face of these two pandemics, as well as prepare for threats
that can and will evolve in the future," said Jong-Jin Kim, FAO Regional
Representative for Asia and the Pacific. "This virtual conference brings
together the people and ideas to chart a true course of action for the benefit
of all."

The conference will
highlight FAO's recently launched comprehensive COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme designed to
provide a flexible and coordinated global response that aims to ensure access
to nutritious food for everyone. The programme includes the mobilization of all
forms of resources and partnerships at country, regional and global level. The
main aim is to mitigate the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic while
strengthening the longer-term resilience of food systems and livelihoods.

The conference will
also consider new marketing channels (such as e-commerce) and new technologies
(including better storage facilities) that will help reduce food losses, as
these are critical to ensure the flow of nutritious foods and to generate improved
incomes for those who work across the entire food and agriculture sectors.

Equally critical is
enabling smallholder and family farmers - those who produce most of the food we
consume - to become more dynamic, entrepreneurial and competitive through
continual innovation. Smallholders will need much greater access to financial
resources, technology and innovation.

Bringing all
players together will be crucial to realizing these gains and FAO is in the
process of implementing the Hand-in-Hand Initiative to enable that. The
conference will have a special session to examine the progress made in the
region through this initiative.

http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/news/detail-events/en/c/1305915/