A political thought for food

THE WORLD’S agrifood system is attracting political attention—not just as a major emitter of greenhouse gases, but also as a sector that has been thriving without easing the level of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Parliamentarians from across the world are coming together to form a new multilateral body to push for reforms and transformations in the agrifood system. While the agrifood sector is already a part of various global conventions and agreements, the evolution of a parliamentarian body (a legislative wing representing national and regional governments) on the same is an interesting development.

On June 16, at the second “Global Parliamentary Summit against Hunger and Malnutrition” in Chile, some 200 parliamentarians and more than a dozen heads or representatives from 64 countries signed a commitment called “Global Parliamentary Pact” on transforming the agrifood system to make food sustainable and accessible to all. The first such summit on hunger and malnutrition was conducted in Spain in 2018, and was later followed by a series of online interactions among parliamentarians called “Virtual Parliamentary Dialogues”, specifically debating and influencing respective governments on ways to address challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The signing of the pact at Chile provides crucial political weightage to the reform and transformation of the agrifood system. It brings a commitment to lend political support to policies that concern the reform of the agrifood system, which includes drafting legislations to ensure equity in food distribution as well as facilitating the budgetary support needed to achieve this. Giving this pact a character of global commitment, the parliamentarians even pledged to report progress on the various reforms. This includes them pursuing their respective governments to take up better monitoring and evaluation of various relevant programmes.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which hosts and facilitates this parliamentary initiative on agrifood systems, some 45 national, regional and sub-regional parliamentary networks commit to it. This has led to processing and approval of 35 laws, which cover family farming, responsible investment in agriculture, gender equality and women’s empowerment, school feeding programmes, food labelling, food loss and waste, among other aspects.

There is an urgent context to this initiative that carries enormous political weightage. The world is facing the crisis of poverty, hunger and malnutrition like never before. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was not on track to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, though there was progress on them. The pandemic reversed any advancement made. In 2021, there were 46 million more people who endured hunger than in 2020. Some 2.3 billion people in the world did not have access to adequate food in 2021. This situation calls for a renewed and, as an emergency call, political commitment to meet the goals of zero poverty, hunger and malnutrition. The parliamentarians’ latest pact is the much needed political interface that these goals deserve, to ensure that they are achieved by 2030. Besides, political interest in these goals will result in accelerating reforms and transformations in the agrifood system that usually fall under the legislative domain. @richiemaha

Global Parliamentary Pact on transforming the agrifood system adds crucial political weightage to the reform needed to make food accessible to all