KUALA LUMPUR, 10 August — World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation, through WIEF Education Trust (WET), will be organising the Face to Face on Reimaging Future Food Systems on 12 August 2021 at 4:00 to 4:45 PM (GMT +8) via Zoom.
The session role-players are Carin Smaller, who is the Director of Agriculture, Trade & Investment International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada as the main speaker, and Darhim Hashim who is the Group CEO of Radimax Group Sdn Bhd, Malaysia, as the session moderator.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 estimated almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019, up 10 million from 2018. A predicted increase of nearly 60 million will happen in the next five years and it will be influenced by factors such as conflicts, natural hazards and climate change.
Now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the target of Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger, is far beyond reach. Availability, access, utilisation and stability of the world’s food system took a downturn during this time. Necessary steps must be taken to build a more resilient and sustainable food system in the future.
Disrupted food supply chains and economic slowdowns have affected food systems worldwide and threatened people’s access to food, making the target of ending hunger even more distant. COVID-19 is expected to exacerbate all forms of malnutrition, particularly in children, due to a loss of household income, a lack of available and affordable nutritious food, reduced physical activity and disruptions in essential nutrition services.
Even discounting the effects of COVID-19, around 230 million children suffer from malnutrition.
Urgent short-term actions are needed to avert rising hunger, and a transformation of food systems is required to achieve a healthy and sustainable food future for all.
This Face-to-Face Session will provide insights into the current challenges facing global food security management, future policies and approaches needed to address these issues and to reduce vulnerabilities to future shocks. The discussion will also be touching on new roadmaps towards achieving goal #2 of the Sustainable Development Goal.
