Bangladesh
Statement by Mr. Md. Mustafizur Rahman, Deputy Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to
UN at the Third Open-ended Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,
Issues: Food Security, Agriculture, Deforestation, Desertification
New York, 22-24 May 2013
Mr. Co-Chair,
Yesterday morning, we heard a number of excellent
presentations from the representatives of FAO, WFP,
IFAD, and UNCCD on various aspects of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture. These were
very informative and thought provoking. We appreci
ate the strong recommendation put forward in their
presentations to adopt food security and nutrition as a
stand-alone SDG goal. Elements of future targets
and indicators also came up in their deliberations. It
may not be too difficult to converge on some specific
areas. Thant is what we perceived listening to th
e interventions and comments of delegates here.
Food security is fundamental to human survival and nobod
y can deny this. It is only natural that the issue
will receive higher importance in the discourse on the pos
t 2015 development agenda. It is an irony that
there is available food to feed everybody in the worl
d, in fact, more food is available than what is
required. Yet, many people go to
bed every night hungry. This is
unacceptable. We appreciate and
support the ‘zero hunger challenge’ campaign launched by
the Secretary General last year. This should
also be our moral and political imperative. But we s
hould strive to move beyond just ending hunger and
target ending malnutrition. The dividend of twin
attack is well documented. Addressing food insecurity
and malnutrition would significantly advance global
agenda of sustainable development. And it is
achievable, as we heard from the experts over the last two days.
Food security is not only an issue of production of fo
od, though it is largely so.
It is about availability,
accessibility and affordability. There is a key role of
agriculture and rural development in this respect. We
need higher investment in agriculture and rural de
velopment. Success in food security is intrinsically
linked to issues like poverty alleviation, land quality,
distribution, as well as, commercialization of food.
Poverty eradication has been the overarching goal
of the global community. Ending poverty should be a
goal in itself, this will help attain food security and
vice versa. There has been very little discussion about
infrastructure issue, though it is closely related to dist
ribution of food and as such, an important factor for
food security. Financialization of commodities is identif
ied as one of the reasons for food price volatility
and the recent global food crisis. As such, judicious
management of food pri
ce, control of speculative
market is essential. If possible, such practice shoul
d be entirely banned as it affects basic necessity of
human being. Food grain is being used to produce biof
uel. This is luxury when many people die out of
hunger and it must stop. The growing global populatio
n, land erosion and land
degradation, make food
security a daunting challenge. Land quality is dete
riorating due to overuse and unscrupulous use of
fertilizer and pesticides. Not only th
e environment is affected, these are causing gradual decline in food
productivity. We heard yesterday reach presentations on
the land regeneration a
nd land restoration. We
are not sure of the cost effectiveness of such effort
s. Provisions of international support in the form of
technology transfer and capacity building may be the utmost need here.
Another critical component of achieving food security
would be to provide social protection to the
marginalized and impoverished section of society. It is well-argued that social protection floors, food
assistance and safety nets are critical enabling conditions
for ending food insecurity and malnutrition. If
small holders do not get price for their products, th
ey would be discouraged to produce more. We know,
they are the mainstay of achieving food security as th
e small farmers contribute more than 60 percent of
global food production.
Finally, food security can not be fully realized if
we do not change our life style, consumption pattern
particularly in the West and stop food loss and food
waste. This certainly means a paradigm shift- a
transformation in food production
and consumption system. Such transformation should essentially
include all the three pillars of sustainable developmen
t. As we call for more investment in research and
innovation in the agricultural field, we also emphasi
s on rule-based, equitable, multilateral trade regime
needs to be put in place for agricultural products. Un
justifiable and trade distorting subsidies should be
discontinued. We would strongly recommend that all
these elements should be factored into possible
SDG on food security and nutrition and sustainable ag
riculture. We look forward to the opportunity to
deliberate on the issue as we move to drafting exercise in formulating SDGs early next year.
I thank you.
UN at the Third Open-ended Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals,
Issues: Food Security, Agriculture, Deforestation, Desertification
New York, 22-24 May 2013
Mr. Co-Chair,
Yesterday morning, we heard a number of excellent
presentations from the representatives of FAO, WFP,
IFAD, and UNCCD on various aspects of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture. These were
very informative and thought provoking. We appreci
ate the strong recommendation put forward in their
presentations to adopt food security and nutrition as a
stand-alone SDG goal. Elements of future targets
and indicators also came up in their deliberations. It
may not be too difficult to converge on some specific
areas. Thant is what we perceived listening to th
e interventions and comments of delegates here.
Food security is fundamental to human survival and nobod
y can deny this. It is only natural that the issue
will receive higher importance in the discourse on the pos
t 2015 development agenda. It is an irony that
there is available food to feed everybody in the worl
d, in fact, more food is available than what is
required. Yet, many people go to
bed every night hungry. This is
unacceptable. We appreciate and
support the ‘zero hunger challenge’ campaign launched by
the Secretary General last year. This should
also be our moral and political imperative. But we s
hould strive to move beyond just ending hunger and
target ending malnutrition. The dividend of twin
attack is well documented. Addressing food insecurity
and malnutrition would significantly advance global
agenda of sustainable development. And it is
achievable, as we heard from the experts over the last two days.
Food security is not only an issue of production of fo
od, though it is largely so.
It is about availability,
accessibility and affordability. There is a key role of
agriculture and rural development in this respect. We
need higher investment in agriculture and rural de
velopment. Success in food security is intrinsically
linked to issues like poverty alleviation, land quality,
distribution, as well as, commercialization of food.
Poverty eradication has been the overarching goal
of the global community. Ending poverty should be a
goal in itself, this will help attain food security and
vice versa. There has been very little discussion about
infrastructure issue, though it is closely related to dist
ribution of food and as such, an important factor for
food security. Financialization of commodities is identif
ied as one of the reasons for food price volatility
and the recent global food crisis. As such, judicious
management of food pri
ce, control of speculative
market is essential. If possible, such practice shoul
d be entirely banned as it affects basic necessity of
human being. Food grain is being used to produce biof
uel. This is luxury when many people die out of
hunger and it must stop. The growing global populatio
n, land erosion and land
degradation, make food
security a daunting challenge. Land quality is dete
riorating due to overuse and unscrupulous use of
fertilizer and pesticides. Not only th
e environment is affected, these are causing gradual decline in food
productivity. We heard yesterday reach presentations on
the land regeneration a
nd land restoration. We
are not sure of the cost effectiveness of such effort
s. Provisions of international support in the form of
technology transfer and capacity building may be the utmost need here.
Another critical component of achieving food security
would be to provide social protection to the
marginalized and impoverished section of society. It is well-argued that social protection floors, food
assistance and safety nets are critical enabling conditions
for ending food insecurity and malnutrition. If
small holders do not get price for their products, th
ey would be discouraged to produce more. We know,
they are the mainstay of achieving food security as th
e small farmers contribute more than 60 percent of
global food production.
Finally, food security can not be fully realized if
we do not change our life style, consumption pattern
particularly in the West and stop food loss and food
waste. This certainly means a paradigm shift- a
transformation in food production
and consumption system. Such transformation should essentially
include all the three pillars of sustainable developmen
t. As we call for more investment in research and
innovation in the agricultural field, we also emphasi
s on rule-based, equitable, multilateral trade regime
needs to be put in place for agricultural products. Un
justifiable and trade distorting subsidies should be
discontinued. We would strongly recommend that all
these elements should be factored into possible
SDG on food security and nutrition and sustainable ag
riculture. We look forward to the opportunity to
deliberate on the issue as we move to drafting exercise in formulating SDGs early next year.
I thank you.
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