17 GOALS TO TRANSFORM OUR WORLD
As the spectre of famine currently looms in multiple countries, climate change is exacerbating many of the existing environmental pressures. The ways we produce and consume food will need to adapt to keep pace.
In September 2015, 193 UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Universal, inclusive, and indivisible, the Agenda calls for action by all countries to improve the lives of people globally. These 17 goals are designed to transform our world.
“The mandate of the new Sustainable Development Goals is clear: creating prosperity means securing a food chain that is environmentally sustainable, socially just and economically inclusive.” Josep Roca, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, El Celler de Can Roca
ENSURING ZERO HUNGER IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
SDG 2: Zero Hunger aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children – have access to adequate and nutritious food at all times of the year. Presently, extreme hunger and malnutrition remain major barriers to development in many countries. Nevertheless, there has been significant progress over the past two decades.
Zero Hunger involves promoting sustainable agricultural practices through supporting small-scale farmers and allowing equal access to land, technology and markets.
One of the specific targets under SDG 2: Zero Hunger is to double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers by 2030, with a particular emphasis on women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists, and fishing communities.
This is only achievable if it takes into account climate change impacts, which threaten to further reduce productivity and hurt the poorest populations who cannot cope well with these shocks.
Adaptation approaches must also be gender-responsive. Estimates suggest that by ensuring equal access to resources for female and male farmers, the number of people hungry in the world could shrink by up to 150 million.
CHANGE IS SIMMERING
Rural farmers are already working to strengthen resilience and enhance food security, particularly in six countries supported by the Canada-UNDP Climate Change Adaptation Facility (CCAF): Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Haiti, Mali, Niger and Sudan. With support from the Government of Canada and the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Countries Fund, the CCAF is improving water access and management, introducing new varieties of crops, and strengthening alternative livelihoods that are not dependent on climate-sensitive natural resources.
“In addition to improving food security and creating opportunity for millions of smallholder farmers, investments in sustainable agriculture can assist countries in adapting to climate change and enhance the resilience of their farmers,” Erich Cripton, Office of the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN. In all six CCAF countries, project activities targeted smallholder farmers to ensure they have accurate and timely information related to climate change impacts and adaptation strategies, as well as the ability to use it.
Building resilience to climatic events is critical for communities around the world to eradicate poverty and strengthen sustainable livelihoods. To avoid disastrous impacts down the road, which lead to unemployment, hunger and even famine, sustained investment in new technologies and enhanced capacities for adaptation can be taken now.
ADAPTIVE FARMS BRING RESILIENT TABLES
To better understand and share the experiences of these six countries in addressing SDG 2: Zero Hunger, and to celebrate some of the successes of the CCAF projects, a cookbook highlighting traditional recipes has been created to examine and raise awareness on the links between food security and climate change.
The inaugural UNDP cookbook, ‘Adaptive Farms, Resilient Tables’, was launched on Monday, 03 April in New York City. It features traditional recipes from the six CCAF countries – Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Haiti, Mali, Niger and Sudan – and tells the stories of how people have adapted to climate change impacts, making the way they produce and consume their food more sustainable.
"We can see the similarities between the six countries, and this innovative cookbook gives us the words to speak from the people living in the province. This approach gives you the sense of how this scientific word “climate change” is affecting the real people,” Dorine Jean-Paul, Project Manager for the UNDP Haiti CCAF Project.