 We are in times of crisis, we are in times where we are reaching close to 128 million people in chronic undernourishment. The situation is even worsen by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery which has faced significant challenges and by the war in Ukraine which has exacerbated the situation that we are facing today. This has put us in a significant stress not only of chronic undernourishment but also on a cure for insecurity which has risen in the last years. We want to take a different approach. We want to take up an approach of action and the second edition of the Honey Hand Initiative Investment Forum want to do this and it will take place in FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy from the 17th to the 20th of October of 2023. Ministers and high-ranked officers from 30 Honey Hand countries of Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific plus the regional initiatives from the Sahel and the Dry Corridor will present their investment cases and their investment opportunities during four days' event to an audience of investors, CEOs and high representatives of global private-agri-food systems, national agricultural companies, international development banks and donors among others, development agents. The agenda also includes a round table of the CEOs of global firms to show how they can contribute to achieve the goal, the SDG2 goal that we want to achieve. Also with high-ranked officers of multilateral development banks because we need to change the way we think. The public sector, the private sector and the international financial organizations have to work together to be able to achieve this goal. This 2023 edition is inspired by the successful achievement in our first ever Honey Hand Investment Forum launched last year during the World Food Forum where 20 countries participated and presented for the first time ever their investment cases and these were valued at $3 billion. Today we have been able to raise more than a billion dollars of those required investments. We have seen significant commitments that has been recorded and follow-up negotiations are being developed in many countries. With a market-oriented approach and decisions based on scientific evidence, Honey Hand is a country-owned and a country-led process that seeks to produce concrete results through innovative US special tools and advance analytics to enhance agricultural productivity, improving nutrition and food security as well as raising rural living standards. To this end, it seeks to obtain maximum agricultural potential with market net earnings for the poor so that we can move them sustainably out of poverty. That's exactly what we need and that's why we are taking this new approach through the Honey Hand Investment Forum. Not only that, all the investments that we are bringing up led by the countries are sustainable investments so they don't only look to increase productivity and reduce poverty but they also look to assure sustainability, environmental sustainability of our nature and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For that, the confluence of the private and the public sector and international financial organizations is of crucial importance to consolidate this process and to move ahead in this strategy. This forum will provide a unique platform for investors to learn directly from countries, high-ranked representatives about their investment opportunities and for countries representatives to seek and interact with potential investors for their priority investments and plans. The event will promote those sectors and opportunities in the participants' countries with greatest potential development impact, high-sustainable food systems development and social and financial returns. It will also be driven by insights from the prominent participants who have been requested to present their perspectives on how to stimulate asset allocation to long-term sustainable investments across and beyond national markets. Colleagues, the Honey Hand Matchmaking process is a process of innovation. It's a process of making countries lead their initiative but also match with what the investors are willing to do to support their initiatives. We need to bring all the sectors together to try to make a realization of this investment that we know by its original design it will have to reduce poverty and accelerate the process. The Honey Hand Initiative has developed a web app that you can use as private sector or international financial organizations or traditional donors to create appointments beforehand with their countries so that you can start a discussion and then make concrete appointments during the days of the investment forum. Meetings can be booked at any time and especially for this event. Through the Honey Hand, the mobilization of both public and private investments in agriculture is critical and necessary to sustain and accelerate economic growth, secure employment, incorporate technology, reduce poverty, increase food security and sustainable development. The event aims to facilitate increased private and public flows in an integrated manner to achieve SDG-1, reduction of poverty, SDG-2, zero hunger and SDG-10, reduction of inequalities in member countries. Why? Because there is no way we will achieve sustainable reduction of hunger and poverty if we don't reduce inequalities. Dear all, I would like to invite you and to count on your participation in the new edition of the Honey Hand Investment Forum. I would really like to see you here and thank you very much. Copyright© OSHO International Foundation