Credit: © SDG Fund

By Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 2017 (IPS)

What you eat doesn’t only affect your own health – it also affects our planet’s health. From deciding which food to buy, to how you store and prepare it, you are making decisions that have profound effect on your personal health, as well as the health of your environment.

The good news is that food does not need to be a threat to sustainable development – it can be one of the solutions. Sustainable cooking is vital in the fight against climate change, and can contribute to Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, the world’s blueprint for tackling poverty, inequality, and climate change by 2030. More people need to understand the power they have behind food-related decisions, and make choices that respect their bodies and planet.

Paloma Durán

The links between hunger and climate change are well documented. For example, climate change leads to more extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and storms, all of which can destroy crops and critical infrastructure, according to the World Food Programme. Nearly 800 million people are undernourished, and one of the most devastating impacts of climate change is that it could drive that number up. This month, we marked World Food Day, which set a bold goal to end hunger worldwide.

At the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund), we are working in 23 countries to achieve the SDGs, and food is often right at the center. Sustainable food practices are not only helping keep our bodies and the planet healthy, they are boosting local economies, reducing poverty and ensuring gender equality.

In Ecuador, for example, we worked to strengthen local food systems by encouraging practices that help with climate change adaptation, such as using organic fertilizers and diverse crops, and avoiding carbon emissions by limiting energy consumption and reducing water use.

In Fiji, where more than 44 percent of youth are unemployed, we teamed up with UN agencies to create jobs by strengthening local organic agriculture. We know that organic systems are more resilient to climate change; they retain 20-40 percent more topsoil, and have better yields during droughts than conventional farms.

Quinoa producer. Credit: © SDG Fund

In Sri Lanka, we collaborated with the local government and UN agencies to revise the school curriculum and educate schoolchildren, teachers, and others about nutrition, addressing a longstanding problem of malnutrition among Sri Lankan children. And in Peru, we assisted more than 4,200 quinoa producers with everything from negotiating market prices to setting up systems that allowed them to increase exports of these popular grains. This was particularly helpful for the female producers in rural areas, who account for 69 percent of the producers.

But you don’t have to be a farmer or live in these countries to get involved. Anyone can start employing sustainable cooking methods to help fight climate change right from the kitchen. Here are 12 simple tips to get you started:

1. To reduce energy consumption, don’t pre-heat your oven. Only open the door if you really need to, as each time you do that, the temperature significantly drops.
2. Use cookware that retains heat well, such as that made of cast iron, ceramic or glass.
3. Use water more efficiently by not letting the faucet run; you can wash your fruits and vegetables in a bowl of water instead.
4. About a third of all food produced – or 1. 3 billion tons of food yearly – is wasted each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Help lower this number by planning your meals ahead and thinking about how you’ll use your leftovers.
5. Get creative about how you reuse your water. For example, you can cool the water you used to boil your pasta, then water the plants with it.
6. Plan seasonal menus. By using produce when it’s in season, you will not only make your meals more tasty, but save money.
7. Avoid processed foods. They are not only bad for your health, they are bad for the environment. They tend to use a lot of packaging, which you should avoid buying, and reuse whenever possible.
8. Get gardening! Plant herbs such as parsley, basil, and mint in your backyard, on your rooftop, or your windowsills.
9. Shop local. By visiting local farmers’ markets, you can buy local products that don’t have to travel as far to reach you, while also supporting the local economy.
10. Check product labels; food that is transported across the world often requires more additives and preservatives, and less healthy.
11. Boil, grill and steam food instead of frying it to ensure healthy nutrients are preserved.
12. Become aware of your CO2 emissions, also known as your carbon footprint. For example, a vegetable diet has a lower footprint than an animal one as livestock produce requires a lot of greenhouse gases and resources for feeding. Tools such as the Nature Conservancy’s carbon footprint estimate can teach you more about your carbon footprint, and allow you to make contributions to offset it.

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By Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 6 2017 (IPS)

Just last month business representatives from around the world joined the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fund commemorate their work as part of the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG).

For much of the last two years, the group has been collaborating with the Fund on how the business community can work towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN’s roadmap to promote inclusive economic growth, social justice and environmental protection.

This group of businesses committed to sustainability has accomplished a number of goals since it was formed in 2015, including establishing a set of pioneering public-private partnerships in areas such as food security, education, and employment for women and youth.

The group has served as an important link between the business sector and SDG Fund partners to raise awareness about the SDGs, participate in research on public-private partnerships and promote best practices. Under our ongoing strategy, the group will intensify its work on advancing and advocating for greater inclusion linked to the goals and helping us widen our private-sector approach.

Advocacy and outreach

The PSAG continues to play a vital role in informing the SDG Fund on how businesses can better work with partners at the UN, particularly how they can improve people’s living standards and make investments that will create more jobs. It’s also become clear that companies are slowly embracing and adopting the Sustainable Development Goals in their strategies — working on projects that align with their core business and interest and adhere to a larger framework

In fact, the SDG Fund has engaged new private sector partners to generate a number of key initiatives, including the Food Africa Project in Nigeria, an innovative partnership between private enterprise, UN and government agencies, and renowned chefs that aims to alleviate poverty through food security.

At the SDG Fund, it is clear that companies are eager to think more expansively on their role in development, and business of all sizes are demonstrating that they can effectively incorporate SDGs as a part of their strategic planning.

There are a few signs that we are on track, especially as members of the Private Sector Advisory Group continue to provide valuable perspective about building new partnerships to eradicate poverty, achieve food security and improve nutrition, water access and sanitation. Since joining the group, many companies have successfully incorporated the SDGs into their work and sustainability reports.

For example, Nutresa and Sahara Group now report annual results and sustainability activities using SDG goals and indicators. More than half of the members are engaging with the SDG Fund to create public-private partnerships and working to design and co-create programs in the field. Equally encouraging is that new companies, like Intel have joined the group.

It is probably worth noting that a business as usual approach is no longer possible. Thankfully, the number of businesses interested in joining forces on the SDGs has been encouraging. Companies like Ebro Foods have used the power of social media to raise awareness about a new initiative that brings together philanthropists, governments and academics.

Other milestones include the engagement of UN Goodwill Ambassadors – the Roca Brothers. The master chef brothers have committed to bringing attention to the SDGs and using their expertise to advocate for enhanced food security and access to nutritious food. They are working with local partners to provide guidance on how to improve food industry and agricultural practices to protect the environment and create jobs.

In 2017, working with our public and private sector partners we have witnessed how companies have continued to deepen their knowledge of the SDGs, asking key questions and exploring how their organizations can contribute to the global development agenda. This has come to mean everything from devising innovative partnership agreements to investing in large-scale infrastructure or improving agriculture inputs.

In fact, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery building on this group’s experience, some countries have drawn lessons from our success and began replicating the model and creating national versions of the group.

For example, Nigeria, recently launched a Private Sector Advisory Group. The private sector has come together to advise the government to share ideas across industry sectors and regions with the aim of creating a connective platform for more impactful and local-driven models and solutions to achieve the SDGs.

Projects in the pipeline

We believe there is a lot to do in the next 13 years, we know from our series of reports, there must also be more robust public-private collaboration across the UN to achieve SDGs start taking shape. We heard and we listed to companies as reflected in our “Business and the United Nations: How business can contribute to the SDGs,” which provided case studies and best practice advice for companies eager to engage in the SDGs.

A second report, “Universality and the SDGs: A Business Perspective,” put out this year was based on input from more than 100 companies during interactive workshops in Africa, Latin America, Europe and the United States. Looking forward, the SDG Fund is committed to bringing public and private institutions together to achieve development results.

Our private sector strategy has two objectives: to involve businesses in all of our 22 field programs and expand the reach of our global business advisory partners. We are also preparing a new report, taking a deep dive into how businesses can contribute to peace outlined as part of SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).

As in much of our work, this will be a collaborative effort with the University of Pennsylvania Law School and McDermott Will & Emery LLP to analyze the links between inclusive growth, partnerships and peace.

As champions for promoting the SDGs, we also believe that policy, direction and action will be instrumental for setting the stage for SDG integration. We look forward to working with the private sector and continuing to explore ways to create an ongoing mechanism to boost cooperation and development through the SDGs in all industries.

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By Nikhil Seth and Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13 2017 (IPS)

Just this year, public and private stakeholders from around the globe marked the one-year anniversary of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The milestone served as an important reminder of the fifteen-year framework that is now in place.

The SDGs were built around a common, global agenda with a clear set of 17 development objectives designed to alleviate poverty by 2030. The result of the broadest consultation process ever undertaken by the UN.

However, in order for the 2030 Agenda to be truly successful, both the public and private sector must embrace its framework for policy and investment.

That said, beyond the confines of the United Nations, it is becoming increasingly evident from extensive, external consultation with both the public and private sector—that there is still a great deal of practical education and advocacy work to be done.

Many companies are still grappling with what exactly the SDGs are and with planning efforts to address them. Learning from our ongoing experience it is essential that we cast a wider net and continue to help companies understand and translate the SDGs into meaningful action.

There is a critical need to determine how we unpack the SDGs in a way that they are no longer mysterious to the private sector, diplomatic community and governments. For those who have been not been involved in the implementation and preparatory discussion of the goals, there is a real need to help educate a larger community of practice and facilitate knowledge sharing at all levels.

With this in mind, UNITAR, and the Sustainable Development Goals Fund have prepared an important online training course to deliver innovative training to address the needs of business and institutions. The course will increase understanding and provide expert insight as part of a new e-Learning tool and curriculum to provide specialized training modules to promote grounded knowledge about the SDGs.

By breaking down the 17 goals to meet the needs of business, the SDGs can be firmly adapted to showcase clear and meaningful targets and plans. The course also provided case studies, examples and indicators of how public-private partnerships for achieving SDGs can be shaped. It is based mainly in the experience shared by the SDG Fund´s Private Sector Advisory Group and partners.

What’s needed now is for the UN to allow for governments, civil society and companies is to understand the key principles so they can build on their own internal systems of management, performance indicators and actual methodologies.

We also recognize that companies are learning from their peers and like their public sector counterparts have begun to see the benefit in building stronger community relations, fostering employee engagement, and continuous learning.

We must expand our often “UN-centric” communications and provide the basic understanding of the goals to a larger network, including those not traditionally working on the subject of development or the global goals. This requires some fresh thinking.

Given the complexities of the agenda, for example with the multitude of targets and indicators, we must break it down and offer concrete and hands-on examples of projects and areas for collaboration. We must work harder to demonstrate the value proposition for implementing the goals.

More broadly– how can the UN help the public and private sector understand the nuances and complexities of what is considered the new 2030 Agenda? Quite simply, there are numerous areas where individuals and business can benefit. What are some of the solutions or best practices for building partnerships– especially at global and national levels?

There seems to be no better time to truly highlight the compelling story of the SDGs’ especially their intrinsic value and how the SDGs can be turned into public and private strategies that work to everyone’s advantage.

If we are to fully advocate for more sustainable development around the world, then we must continue to work with external partners, using new tools and through educational training. We are no longer bound by silos and recognize the need for expanded collaboration with government partners and new actors for successful implementation of the new agenda. There is a clear role for everyone to play and an opportunity to build new and effective SDG partnerships.

For more information on the online training course and modules which are free to registrants, please register at www.unitar.org

https://www.unitar.org/event/full-catalog/business-2030-agenda-working-together-towards-sustainable-future

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By Paloma Duran
NEW YORK, Nov 17 2016 (IPS)

One of the key features of the 2030 Agenda which the United Nations and member states identified in the lead up to the SDG agreement was the principle of universality.

Courtesy of Paloma Durán/UNDP

Building on our interest to tip the scales and generate greater private sector engagement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund) in collaboration with its Private Sector Advisory Group and the Global Compact examined these questions through a new report, Universality and the SDGs: A Business Perspective. The report, launched last week highlights varied perspectives from both large and small companies working to understand the commonality of the new development agenda.

Universality in this context is defined by the UN as “applicable to all countries, while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development that respect national policies and principles.” Thus the notion of Universality also envisions that everyone has a role to play in development and poverty alleviation efforts framing the development agenda.

The business community has, and continues to be deemed an important partner for us, serving as a critical economic engine and multiplier to catalyze economic and social development programs in our 23 joint programs around the world. The task at hand is to now reinforce this commitment and ensure that companies of all sizes and sectors are properly aware of the new SDGs.

To this end, the outcomes of the report were based on a year-long series of workshops and dialogues and reflected input from over 100 firms across a variety of regions and industry sectors. These findings stemming from countless interviews and in-depth questions were not unexpected and mainly in-line with our experience at the SDG Fund. We found that companies were keen to address the new set of goals which they viewed as critical to their core business activities, but many firms still struggled to fully understand the depth of the goals.

The report also mirrored some of our unique experience working with the private sector. For example, while many firms are already working in areas linked to the SDGs, this work is not always associated with the same “UN” or development language. In fact, many companies articulate the “global goals” using other mechanisms, including using other metrics or reporting based on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) indicators or other industry standards.

The new report offers some other useful findings. First, companies both small and large are increasingly aware of the concept of the SDGs, but many firms did not fully grasp the intricacies of the SDGs in context of their work or internal operations.

In addition, although many companies find a clear and added value to framing sustainability initiatives through the SDGs which provide a unified set of globally accepted principles–many companies are still accustomed to working within the confines of their philanthropic and CSR programs.

Despite a strong willingness to embrace the SDGs, many companies are exploring how to best integrate the SDGs into their work. But perhaps the most compelling case for the SDG Fund’s continued efforts to engage companies in a “co-design, co-invest and co-implement policy” is that the private sector remains eager to work on global challenges.

Companies continue to express their desire to be brought into the process to build innovative and robust multi-stakeholder partnerships at the local level and very often with UN partners.

Undoubtedly, with the one-year anniversary of the 2030 agenda approaching in January, this new report reminds us that the UN can and should play a more active role in educating and informing companies on the “universal” dimensions of the SDGs.

It is also important to continue to translate the new agenda into language and simplified reporting metrics that are palatable for businesses of all sizes – all of which means greater education on how companies can integrate the SDGs in their value chains, disseminate accessible resources and tools to promote learning, and support implementation and alignment across sectors.

In the end, the universality principle embedded in the SDGs provides a clear invitation for action and alignment to advance the new development agenda.

We hope to continue to raise public awareness and foster the much needed dialogue and advocacy required to encourage business to support the SDGs. In addition, our report highlights additional information on the ongoing work of the SDG Fund, including Private Sector Advisory Group case studies that continue to build the case for greater engagement in development, especially across sectors and with welcome actors like the private sector.

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By Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 14 2016 (IPS)

It is a well-known fact that 795 million or one in nine are undernourished in our world today. This figure only goes up to more than one in eight for the developing world. Hunger kills more people every year than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined. At the same time, the food industry is a major source of jobs and livelihoods.

The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development recognizes that food is going to play a pivotal role in achieving sustainable development and as such in ensuring Zero Hunger. Various commentators recognize the pivotal role that Goal 2 of the SDGs (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture) plays in achieving the other goals. So what can we do facilitate the achievement of Goal 2 in practical terms?

The Sustainable Development Goals Fund, the first mechanism established for SDG achievement, is already devising new platforms for joint engagement of UN Agencies, governments, civil society, businesses and communities in sustainable development with its work on the ground. In line with its constant efforts to push for innovation in promoting dialogue and action to achieve the SDGs, the SDG Fund is bringing to the table the acclaimed chefs, Joan, Jordi and Josep Roca who run El Celler de Can Roca restaurant in Girona, Spain.

With them, next January 18th at the UN, we will initiate a dialogue on the role of food and the SDGs and what how chefs like the Roca Brothers can contribute to sustainable development. You can be a part of this dialogue by signing up here or sending your questions to dialogues@sdgfund.org.

With food security and nutrition defined as one of its key focus areas the SDG Fund is already funding four joint programmes that directly contribute towards achieving Goal 2. With our support, El Salvador’s government is developing new plans and regulations to tackle food security and nutrition among the most vulnerable. In Guatemala, the SDG Fund is working in 4 municipalities to increase the participation of children, youth, women and men in food security local governance mechanisms.

In Viet Nam, we operate in 2 provinces with extremely high poverty rates to focus on nutrition policies and standards and the development of institutional capacity and systems. In Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, the SDG Fund is engaging youth in organic farming through a farm to table chain approach.

Some key themes to be debated during the dialogue with the Roca brothers will include:
• Food security and improved nutritional outcomes: local food sourcing, food waste and food loss reduction, environmental aspects of food, food preparation, the role of smallholder farmers and conservation and use of food;
• Rethinking how the food and restaurant industry landscape can create more and better jobs, protect the environment, revitalize endemic culinary traditions, educate children and youth on better eating and cooking habits and encourage food-related activities as a source of sustainable livelihoods and especially women’s role along the food chain;
• Establish a stronger understanding of sustainability issues linked to boosting farm yields and offsetting farming challenges;
• In addressing access to food, looking beyond nutrition issues to recognize food as an important engine for inclusive economic growth, reducing poverty and peacebuilding;
• Analyzing the role that Climate change is adding to the challenge of achieving sustainable food production and meeting the demands of a growing population;
• Recognizing adequate feeding and care as an integral part of national strategies and programmes to reduce hunger and undernutrition. Including promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months and appropriate complementary feeding, basic requirements for nutritional wellbeing.

(End)

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By Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 2015 (IPS)

Increasingly gender equality, rooted in human rights, is recognized both as a key development goal on its own and as a vital means to helping accelerate sustainable development. And while the field of gender has expanded exponentially over the years, with programmes focused exclusively on women and girls and greater mainstreaming of gender into many development activities, a range of challenges remain.

Women are still facing unequal access to economic and environmental resources. They often face numerous barriers linked to clear discrimination as well as bear the burden of low wages or unpaid work, and are susceptible to gender-based violence.

So despite the significant advances for women, the fact is that unless women and girls are able to fully realize their rights in all facets of society, human development will not be advanced. The year 2015 is a crucial time to further equality and if the new post-2015 development agenda is to be truly transformative, women must be at the front and also at its centre.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contain a stand-alone goal on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. All the goals are intrinsically interrelated and interdependant – and ideally gender will be adressed and mainstreamed amongst all goals. SDG 5 calls on governments to achieve, rather than just promote, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

The proposed targets include ending violence, eliminating harmful practices, recognizing the value of unpaid care, ensuring that women have full participation – and equal opportunities – in decision-making, and calling for reforms to give women equal access to economic resources. The new post-2015 agenda is a universal idea with high hopes to “leave no one behind,” but to make this a reality, we must keep pressure on governments to follow through on their commitments.

The Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund) has placed gender equality and women’s empowerment at the heart of its efforts to acceleterate progress towards the SDGs. By directly empowering women and by bringing a gender perspective to all development work we can build a more equitable, sustainable future for all.

Stemming from the comitments established in 1995 at the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the SDG Fund adopted a dual strategy for advancing gender equality to support both gender-targeted programmes while simultaneaously mainstreaming gender as a cross-cutting priority. Gender mainstreaming entails transforming existing policy agendas by integrating a gender perspective into all policies and programming.

There is no set recipe to creating programmes that will solve gender inequality and perhaps it would be good if there was one single universally applicable and empirically proven method for achieving gender equality in every country around the world. A multi-dimensional issue such as gender inequality is deeply rooted in economic and cultural structures of society and it requires comprehensive approaches. Furthermore, one needs to explore the issue in the specific context of the country in question to effectively improve the quality of life for women and girls everywhere.

The private sector, together with NGOs and governments, are key actors in addressing the variable causes of gender inequality. In other words, achieving equality and empowerment for women is a challenge that requires the synergistic intervention of multiple actors.

For example, the Fund is working in Bangladesh, where women are employed at the lower end of the productivity scale. Labor force participation of rural women is only 36.4 per cent compared to 83.3 per cent of men. Creating employment and income generating opportunities for women as well as enhancing women’s access to social protection will help reduce gender disparities which are exacerbated by women’s poverty and vulnerability.

The SDG Fund programme entitled “Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities” is led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), local governments and private partners with the overall goal to assist 2,592 women from ultra-poor households. As part of a pilot programme, women are trained in maintenance or rehabilitation of key community assets, public works and community service activities.

Furthermore, the programme is targeting 2,600 women in Kurigram District which has the highest incidence of poverty in Bangladesh. In particular, it aims to assist those who are alone because they are divorced, have been abandoned by their husbands or widowed and/or with low economic status including those with no assets or forced to beg due to poverty. The results will be replicated, targeting 1,900 women, in Satkhira district and the government is further committed scale-up this pilot in a further 20 districts. Overall, the 18 month programme is designed to:

– Helping primary beneficiaries permanently move out of poverty.
– Support human capital with activities to boost knowledge, skills, and confidence.
– Enhance economic inclusion with vocational skills training linked to viable job placement.
– Provide livelihoods options that are resilient in the face of climate change.
– Encourage wage saving or issued as a graduation bonus.
– Facilitate partnership linkages with small and medium enterprises and public-private partnerships to hire participant women after the programme ends.
– Integrate social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
– Enhance good local governance and develop the capacity of local government institutions.
Gender equality is often seen as the key to addressing the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals and accelerating global development beyond 2015. There is strong evidence that closing gender gaps accelerates progress towards other development goals. Poverty, education, health, jobs and livelihoods, food security, environmental and energy sustainability will not be solved without addressing gender inequality.

Urgent action is needed to empower women and girls, ensuring that they have equal opportunities to benefit from development and removing the barriers that prevent them from being full participants in all spheres of society. In the words of UN Women’s Executive Director, “equality for women, is progress for all” and so let us embark on this journey together.

(End)

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By Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 30 2015 (IPS)

With the enthusiasm of the recent Financing for Development conference behind us, the central issues and many layers of what is at stake are now firmly in sight. In fact, a complex issue like hunger, which is a long standing development priority, remains an everyday battle for almost 795 million people worldwide.

Courtesy of Paloma Duran, Director of the Sustainable Development Goals Fund.

While this figure is 216 million less than in 1990-92, according to U.N. statistics, hunger kills more people every year than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines hunger as being synonymous with chronic undernourishment and is measured by the country average of how many calories each person has access to every day, as well as the prevalence of underweight children younger than five.

So where do we stand if food security and nutrition is destined to be a critical component of poverty eradication and sustainable development. In fact, the right to food is a basic human right and linked to the second goal of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) which includes a target to end hunger and achieve food security by 2030.

The United Nations Development Programme is engaged in promoting sustainable agricultural practices to improve the lives of millions of farmers through its Green Commodities Programme. According to the World Food Programme, the world needs a food system that will meet the needs of an additional 2.5 billion people who will populate the Earth in 2050.

To eradicate hunger and extreme poverty will require an additional 267 billion dollars annually over the next 15 years. Given this looming prospect, a question that springs to mind is: how will this to be achieved?

Going forward, this goal requires more than words, it requires collective actions, including efforts to double global food production, reduce waste and experiment with food alternatives. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund) mission, we are working to understand how best to tackle this multi-faceted issue.

With the realisation that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for how to improve food security, the SDG Fund coordinates with a range of public and private stakeholders as well as U.N. Agencies to pilot innovative joint programmes in the field.

For example, the SDG Fund works to tackle food security and nutrition in Bolivia and El Salvador where rural residents are benefiting from our work to strengthen local farm production systems. In addition, we engage women and smallholder farmers as part of our cross-cutting efforts to build more integrated response to development challenges. We recognise that several factors must also play a critical role in achieving the hunger target, namely:

Improved agricultural productivity, especially by small and family farmers, helps improve food security;

Inclusive economic growth leads to important gains in hunger and poverty reduction;

the expansion of social protection contributes directly to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition.

In the fight against hunger, we need to create food systems that offer better nutritional outcomes and ones that are fundamentally more sustainable – i.e. that require less land, less water and that are more resilient to climate change.

The challenges are almost as great as the growing population which will require 70 percent more food to meet the estimated change in demand and diets. Notwithstanding is if we continue to waste a third of what we produce, we have to reevaluate agriculture and food production in terms of the supply chain and try to improve the quality and nutritional aspects across the value chain.

Food security and nutrition must be everyone’s concern especially if we are to eradicate hunger and combat food insecurity across all its dimensions. Feeding the world’s growing population must therefore be a joint effort and unlikely to be achieved by governments and international organisations alone.

In the words of José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director General, “The near-achievement of the MDG hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our lifetime. We must be the Zero Hunger generation. That goal should be mainstreamed into all policy interventions and at the heart of the new sustainable development agenda to be established this year.”

Edited by Kitty Stapp

Excerpt:

By Paloma Duran
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 5 2015 (IPS)

The countdown has begun to September’s Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with world leaders discussing the 17 goals and 169 targets proposed by the United Nations Open Working Group.

The post-2015 development agenda will focus primarily on strengthening opportunities to reduce poverty and marginalisation in ways that are sustainable from an economic, social and environmental standpoint.

Courtesy of Paloma Duran/UNDP

How shall the world set the measure for all subsequent work?

The SDG Fund, created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with an initial contribution from the government of Spain, has been designed to smoothen the transition from the Millennium Development Goals phase into the future Sustainable Development Goals.

The rationale of the joint programme initiative is to enhance the development impact of technical assistance by combining inputs from various U.N. entities, each contributing according to its specific expertise and bringing their respective national partners on board.

To illustrate, we are currently implementing joint programmes in 18 countries addressing challenges of inclusive economic growth for poverty eradication, food security and nutrition as well as water and sanitation.

The majority of our budget is invested in sustainable development on the ground and is directly improving the lives of more than one million people in various regions of Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Arab States and Africa.The main objective of the SDG fund is to bring together U.N. agencies, national governments, academia, civil society and businesses to find ways in which we can reduce poverty, improve nutrition and provide access to affordable water and sanitation.

National and international partners provide approximately 56 percent of these resources in the form of matching funds.

Each programme was originally chosen through a selection process including the review by thematic and development independent experts.

In addition, we ensure that local counterparts engage in the decision-making processes from programme design to implementation and evaluation. More than 1,500 people were directly involved in designing the various programmes.

The main objective of the SDG fund is to bring together U.N. agencies, national governments, academia, civil society and businesses to find ways in which we can reduce poverty, improve nutrition and provide access to affordable water and sanitation.

Drawing from extensive experience of development practice as well as the former Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund, we are continually seeking better ways in which to deal with challenges that present themselves.

Gender equality, women’s empowerment, public-private partnerships and sustainability are cross-cutting priorities in all areas of our work.

It is noteworthy to point out that we are focusing our efforts on forging partnerships with the private sector as we recognise the importance of actively engaging with businesses and ensuring their full participation in the development process.

It is in this vein that a Private Sector Advisory Group will be established this spring, consisting of representatives from various industries worldwide with the aim to collaborate and discuss practical solutions pertaining to the common challenges of contemporary sustainable development.

Together we will work diligently to identify areas of common interest and promote sustainability of global public goods.

As an example of how we work on the ground, we are setting into motion programme activities that relate to alleviating child hunger and under-nutrition as well as projects that promote sustainable and resilient livelihoods for vulnerable households, especially in the context of adapting to climate change.

To illustrate, in Peru we are contributing towards establishing an inclusive value chain in the production of quinoa and other Andean grains, so that the increase of demand in the international market can convert into economic and social improvements on the ground.

In addition, we are supporting programme activities that promote the integration of women in the labour market as it is key to equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. We are conscious of the fact that gender equality and the full realisation of human rights for women and girls have a transformative effect on development and is a driver of economic growth.

To illustrate, the SDG Fund is currently financing five joint programmes in Africa that address some of the most pressing issues in the region, and seek to achieve sustainable development through inclusive economic growth.

In Ethiopia, rural women lag behind in access to land property, economic opportunities, justice system and financial assets. Female farmers perform up to 75 per cent of farm labour and yet hold only 18.7 per cent of agricultural land in the country.

We are taking a multifaceted approach to generate gender-sensitive agricultural extension services, support the creation of cooperatives, promote the expansion of women-owned agribusiness and increase rural women’s participation in rural producer associations, financial cooperatives and unions.

To conclude, we are looking forward to making a significant impact in the coming years with the hope to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

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