In this piece for New Vision, Boaz Keizire, a 2017 New Voices Fellow, notes the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and armed conflict on all dimensions of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda including food security and nutrition, poverty, health and the environment.
He highlights the importance of building sustainable food systems as our current agricultural practices are not only depleting natural resources, but also are of the main contributions to greenhouse gasses. As noted by Keizire, “more than one quarter of the energy used globally is consumed on food production and supply”. Furthermore, food systems are and will continue to be “among the hardest hit by climate change” and thus require transformation as well as integration with our efforts to address climate change.
Keizire notes that this transformation of food systems requires “deep shifts across production, storage, consumption, and disposal of food” arguing further that these changes have the potential to act as catalysts for broader transformation across multiple systems of SDGs.
With 2023 marking the halfway point in the implementation of the SDGs, Keizire notes that steps being made towards food and agriculture-related targets have either stagnated or reversed and as a result are further “compounding challenges in eradicating poverty and hunger, improving health nutrition, and combating climate change”. As we approach 2030, Keizire highlights the urgency of action and offers recommendations for change.
To read more on why the transformation of food systems is crucial to achieving SDGs click below.