UN Food System Hub urges fairer, sustainable solutions to drive global development

Doha, Qatar: The global effort to make food systems more equitable, sustainable, and resilient must accelerate if the world is to achieve the Sustaina...

Doha, Qatar: The global effort to make food systems more equitable, sustainable, and resilient must accelerate if the world is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said Stefanos Fotiou (pictured), Director of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub.

Speaking to The Peninsula, on the sidelines of the World Summit for Social Development, Fotiou underscored that transforming food systems is not only about improving agriculture but also about addressing the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainable development.

“The main role of the Hub is to support national governments, with the participation of stakeholders and with technical support from the UN system to implement their food system transformation pathways and ensure that they can make their food systems more sustainable and resilient,” Fotiou explained.

He described how the Hub has taken a country-driven approach, first engaging governments and National Food System Conveners to understand their specific needs.

“We took the global momentum and the global messages and tried to translate and operationalise them at the country level,” Fotiou said. “We bring together at the national level the UN system, stakeholders, and the broader ecosystem of support to provide comprehensive and direct assistance to national food system focal points. That’s our main delivery model and our main achievement.”