On July 12, 2016, the SDSN co-hosted a side event at the High Level Political Forum with Biovision and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). The event was entitled How to achieve SDG2? Two initiatives to support the development of national transformation pathways.
David Nabarro, Special Adviser on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, offered video remarks to open the session. Mayacine Camara, Coordinator at the Directorate-General for Economic and Policy Planning at the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning of Senegal, shared some of the challenges Senegal is facing in achieving SDG 2, including hunger, climate change, and a problematic trade system. He also shared ways that Senegal is already working to address these challenges, including investments into the agricultural sector to achieve targets for rice self sufficiency. Deborah Fulton, Secretary of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), shared the recent work of CFS in support of SDG 2, including a number of recent reports on crosscutting issues like gender, fisheries, and biofuels. Marie-Hélène Schwoob, Research Fellow at IDDRI, presented the Agricultural Transformation Pathways Initiative (ATPi) (slides available online) and Hans Herren, President of the Millenium Institute and co-founder of Biovision, presented the Changing Course in Global Agriculture Initiative (slides available online). Zachary Bleicher of IFAD moderated the session, including a discussion with participants, and Lauren Barredo of the SDSN offered closing remarks.
Participants were in agreement that SDG 2 calls on countries to transform their agricultural sectors to ensure that all people have access to sufficient, healthy, and sustainably-produced food. This is no small task, as farming systems are incredibly diverse, and there are tradeoffs that need to be balanced. Countries will therefore need to develop long-term roadmaps with targets that set a clear, shared vision of the future, balancing the 3 pillars of sustainable development (economic, social, and environmental objectives). For example, Senegal’s target of rice self-sufficiency will greatly increase food security in the country, but is ambitious given climate change. A long-term roadmap to achieving this goal can greatly increase the chance of success. Two models for developing such pathways were presented; a backcasting methodology in the ATPi and a system dynamics model called T21.
Several participants highlighted the need for roadmaps to be co-constructed by multi-stakeholder partnerships including governments, farmers, researchers, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations. Comments from the floor called on these multi-stakeholder partnerships to include livestock, fisheries, and crops like pulses, as there is often an over-emphasis on staple crops, grains, and soy.
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Launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in August 2012, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) mobilizes scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector in support of sustainable development problem solving at local, national, and global scales.
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