Arab forum calls for concerted efforts to ensure food security

RABAT: Speakers at the Arab Forum on Sustainable Development highlighted the need of closer cooperation among the Arab countries and regional and international organizations to ensure food security in the Arab region. This goal is one of the top priorities set forth in the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development, Shatha Al-Gendi, an ILO official in charge of the implementation of the agenda, said in a speech to the gathering on Thursday.

The Arab countries face numerous challenges in their quest for sustainable development; these require closer collaboration to realize economic integration, food security and eradication of poverty, she said. Al-Gendi noted that the economic approach, adopted by many Arab countries in the last decades, failed to create sufficient jobs. She suggested developing an alternative approach to development and employment in collaboration with the ILO and other competent UN agencies.

On her part, Amira Gornass, head of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and Permanent Representative of the Sudan to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), urging revising the food production systems in the Arab countries. The Arab region requires common policy in the field of food production, particularly the agricultural sector in order to curb the growing poverty rate and end the food shortage, she said in a similar speech.

Meanwhile, Abbas Mohammad Awadh, Secretary-General of Sudan’s National Council of Strategic Planning, said the agricultural development is the main pathway for food security which requires integrating strategies. He added that the Arab region has the prerequisites for attaining the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit. The forum, themed “combating poverty and enhancing prosperity in Arab countries,” is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in collaboration with the Arab League; it opened on Wednesday and will come to a close on Friday. — KUNA