Ending hunger requires changing diets

United nations-. The president of the fund, Gilbert F. Hongbo, that to transform today’s food systems to end world hunger and become sustainable, we must first rethink how we finance them.

The highest representative of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said that future success will depend on many things, resources and reducing financial gaps is one of the main factors.

Nearly three billion people around the world cannot afford a healthy diet, and the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed 115 million people into extreme poverty, the agency said.

The most vulnerable are rural people in developing countries, who are essential contributors to food systems, Hongbo explained, so achieving a global commitment to Zero Hunger for Sustainable Development requires a radical rethink of how we support them.

Success will depend on these transformations being inclusive, especially for those who grow, process and distribute our food. Food systems must work for the people who work in them.

The Fund called on governments and public and private financing organizations to break out of their silos and innovate in order to increase the resources available to countries to support their national development paths.

It is essential to develop plans to support rural producers and build sustainable food systems within their individual contexts, with a link between local needs, national development pathways and international coordination, while implementing financing systems adapted to changing global realities.

An IFAD-supported study in four African countries found that even where credit products are available, they actually tend to be inaccessible to small farmers.