Policy paper

Joint ministerial statement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, and the Federal Republic of Somalia

Published 20 November 2023

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

The world is facing a protracted food security and nutrition crisis, driven by climate change, conflict, and economic disruptions, exacerbated by inflation and the volatility of world food prices. Nearly 1 billion people are severely food insecure and regularly do not have enough food to eat, 34 million people across 36 countries are one step away from famine, and more than one in three people globally not able to afford a healthy diet. The crisis is global and affects everyone, but women and girls are disproportionately affected.

We meet today in London at the Global Food Security Summit to take the long view and urge the international community to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, act early and more effectively to prevent food security crises and malnutrition, and build more resilient agriculture and food systems in the face of climate change. We welcome the launch of the UK’s White Paper on International Development which sets out a strategic agenda for tackling the intertwined climate, nature and development challenges, in collaboration with partners.

We know that it is neither effective nor cost efficient to only react. Improving anticipatory approaches and building resilience to shocks by sustaining basic services, replanting crops, and social protection ahead of and during crises can help prevent the worst impacts and ensure funding is directed where it is most needed. We need to address the underlying causes of food. insecurity. We are clear that food must not be used as a weapon of war. When parties to armed conflicts comply with their legal obligations, this can significantly reduce the impact of conflict on food insecurity.

Strong, resilient, and sustainable food systems are critical to ensuring everyone has access to healthy, nutritious foods, but the escalating impact of climate change and environmental degradation – for example increasingly frequent extreme weather events, droughts, rising sea levels, depleted soils – are damaging food production and undermining global food security. The transition to climate-resilient and sustainable, productive, nutritious food systems requires policy action, science, technology and innovation and scaling up both public and private investments.

We must support and mobilise effort around this transition, including in support of country- and region-led initiatives and plans, and globally through the Agriculture Breakthrough, the Agriculture Policy Dialogue and Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate. We will promote collective and individual efforts to shift incentives for investment into sustainable food systems. Above all, however, we need programmes and investments that walk the talk, at scale, and we need them fast, as time is running out, for people and planet. We have seen today what good looks like; we must now focus resources on scaling up what works at pace.

We will champion innovation and research partnerships to translate scientific discoveries into practical solutions. Public and private investment in new approaches and technologies is critical to developing and scaling up transformative solutions for food security and nutrition, and to ensuring equitable access for all, particularly in developing countries.

As the impacts of climate change intensify, we must continue to work across the global climate and humanitarian systems to improve access to climate adaptation finance for vulnerable countries in which the intersecting impacts of climate shocks and conflict drive up humanitarian need and worsen food insecurity. It is essential that we work with national and local actors to build their capacity to effectively leverage this climate finance for resilience building and anticipatory action.

Resilient food systems are necessary for delivery of healthy and nutritious diets and for prevention of life-threatening conditions like child wasting which affects at least 45 million children worldwide and remains one of the single biggest contributors to childhood deaths. Effective treatment exists but can be unaffordable in many high burden countries and coverage remains low. Even for children who survive, wasting can lead to lifelong health and developmental consequences. Therefore, it is even more pressing to prevent children from becoming wasted in the first place.

We welcome the inauguration of the Child Nutrition Fund, an important tool in improving sustainability of financing for wasting and improving coverage, and we call on the international community to implement the new WHO guidelines on prevention and management of child wasting across their national systems to address this devastating condition.

In 10 days, world leaders will meet at UNFCCC-COP28 in Dubai to move forward ambition on climate action. It is critical that food systems remain high on the UNFCCC-COP28 agenda, and we call on governments to sign up to the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action and align this commitment with climate plans to unlock the policy tools and resources needed for transition to sustainable food systems. We remain committed to working collaboratively towards these goals, including through the UN, and supporting Brazil’s G20 Presidency and Italy’s G7 Presidency to mobilise wider international action towards achieving SDG2 – to achieve zero hunger and end all forms of malnutrition.