The conflicts, the crises economics and the climate crisis These are just three of the major threats to global food security. The past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have strained supply chains and access to food for much of the world's population.
The immediate management of emergencies that affect agri-food systems it is, in fact, a fundamental prerogative. At the same time, however, it is essential to intervene before these crises occur. Only then will it be possible to lay the foundations of food security for resilient agri-food systems prepared for future crises.
Dr. Niccolò Lombardi, Food Safety
We will talk about this and much more with Dr. Niccolò Lombardi, Early Action Coordinator of the Emergency and Rehabilitation Division of FAO. Thanks to his decades of experience in the field of food safety, Dr. Lombardi is responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring plans for the management and prevention of risks in agriculture.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), for which he works, has among its main objectives the promotion of food security and access to safe and quality food sources for all citizens of the world. It is a specialized UN agency established in 1945 in Quebec City, Canada, on the occasion of the first session of the United Nations.
agri-food hub
It has had its headquarters in Rome since 1951, along with two other organizations also specialized in food and agriculture: the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program (WFP). Together with the FAO, these three agencies form the so-called United Nations "agri-food hub".
In particular, FAO has 195 Members (194 States and the European Union) and its offices are also present in 130 countries. Given the enormous complexity of its tasks, FAO is divided into several regional, subregional and country offices, spread throughout the world.
In the current geopolitical and environmental context, the issue of food safety acquires central importance. Could you give us some concrete examples to better understand this concept? And what is the role of FAO in this regard?
According to the official definition provided by the FAO we speak of food safety when:
All people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious amounts of food to meet their needs and preferences for an active and healthy life.
The 4 pillars of Food Safety
En particular, food safety consists of four fundamental pillars:
- " Food availability ": the material availability of food.
- " access to food ": People must be able to access food sources on their own. Also in this case there are several aspects related to access to food, such as the purely physical aspect, but also the economic one. For example, I may have the money to buy food, but at the same time I cannot access it due to conflict or a natural disaster.
- " Utilization ": people must be able to make correct use of food to have an adequate diet, following and respecting all hygienic-sanitary regulations related to the preparation of food itself.
- " Stability ": to really talk about food security, it is necessary for people to have access to food sources that last over time. People may be at risk of losing food security after a climate event, a shock economic, a conflict.
World hunger and food security
Regarding the role played by FAO, it should be noted that the individual pillars we have just seen are intimately connected to each other. If you really want to end world hunger by 2030, you need to plan medium- and long-term strategies for action. These they must be able to combine aspects related to the sustainability of agri-food productions, together with the purely legal and legislative ones that govern the food sector.
To make this possible, FAO has the collaboration of various specialized figures that are part of the divisions within the organization itself. For example, there are technical divisions specialized in livestock and grazing, but also in fishing and economic and agricultural development.
All these divisions work together to help governments develop the necessary action plans to guarantee the food safety. Equally important is their work to ensure the stability of agri-food production, also and especially in countries that are in emergency contexts.
Emergency management in Food Safety
Emergency management and the prevention of future crises are, in fact, two of the objectives of the FAO Division for which he works. Could you tell us what this division does?
The Division of Emergencies and Resilience of the FAO is a division that intervenes mainly in all those countries that are in the so-called “ context of food crisis ”. These are countries in which it is very complex to guarantee the four pillars of food security.
In particular, when it comes to emergency management, our division intervenes above all to enable populations to protect and secure their livelihoods and food production. The goal is to help people to restart production immediately after the event responsible for the crisis, which may be the result of extreme weather events or other factors.
Among the emergency aid that our division provides immediately to the most vulnerable communities, we find, for example, the distribution of seeds and feed for animals and veterinary assistance. But also the installation of micro-irrigation systems or monetary aid.
Let's not just talk about financial aid...
Often this financial aid (cash) is also accompanied by other aid in kind (technically, cash plus). Among these we find, for example, the equipment to facilitate the collection of rainwater in particularly dry areas.
In addition to this series of immediate aid, it is essential that the population have all the means to then be able to face and manage future crises. The distribution of food is fundamental and many times necessary to avoid the death of people.
But the problem can never be solved if these immediate interventions are not associated with support for production. The latter must, in fact, be able to give benefits in the short, but also in the medium-long term.
Your role is to Anticipatory Action Coordinator, precisely for the Division of Emergencies and Resilience of the FAO. But what is meant by anticipatory actions? And what are the division's main methods of intervention?
Actually, the concept of anticipatory action is quite recent. It has also gained momentum thanks to progressive development of useful technologies to predict the arrival of shocks and disastrous events. We are talking, for example, of extreme climatic events, such as hurricanes, droughts or typhoons, but also of crisis economic, or the rapid spread of plant and animal diseases.
In particular, an anticipatory action is exactly halfway between what in technical jargon is called » early warning «, that is, an early warning, and the event itself. Thanks to the use of specific indicators for the risk we are monitoring, it is possible to predict when the event will occur and its extension.
Among the most used technologies we find, for example, lclimate prediction models, the use of satellites or instruments capable of measuring the health status of the soil. When the risk exceeds a certain level, a procedure for mobilizing funds and monetary resources is automatically activated to reduce the impacts of the disaster.
SPHERE
This help can come directly from an internal fund of FAO, called SFERA, but also from other funds and from the governments of the affected countries. All these actions are possible thanks to great internal coordination work within the organization itself. Not only that, our organization is also an integral part of a NETWORK external coordination with four other major organizations.
These are the World Food Program (WFP), the International Federation of the Red Cross, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Start Network. An organization, the latter, that brings together more than 50 humanitarian organizations, including international organizations and various national NGOs.
Preventing crises also means building resilient systems for the near future. In this regard, what are the actions being carried out by your FAO Division?
The concept of anticipatory action teaches that helping people after they have been hit by an emergency is much less effective than intervening before the crisis. So why wait for these predictable disasters to happen?
As mentioned above, it is right that the starting point of our division is emergency aid to support the local population. But it is already from this first phase that it is necessary to lay the foundations for a truly effective and lasting resilience. This resilience can begin, for example, with the provision of seeds that are resistant to various environmental stresses, such as water stress and high temperatures.
Diversification of sources of income
The organization is then responsible for provide assistance and training about how to actually use the available tools. It is an approach that, whatever it may be, always takes into account local farming techniques and practices. Knowledge sharing and local insights are indeed essential for people to be independent and able to withstand future shocks. .
The diversification of sources of income is equally important for reduce dependence on a single productive activity and therefore vulnerability to the effects of new shocks. Parallel to these activities, it is also necessary to act to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases and increase efficiency in the use of resources.
Finally, it is clear that when it comes to food security and resilience of agrifood systems, Collaboration with the political systems and governments of the affected countries becomes fundamental and necessary. Only thanks to teamwork will it be possible to build truly resilient agri-food systems for the near future.