Nutrition

Food security. On September 18th, the Think Tanks 20 (T20) Summit concluded in Buenos Aires, one of the G20 affinity groups that brings together different think tanks from 68 countries. During the event, the T20 presented a document of recommendations to the G20 governments. These include policies to strengthen cooperation on food security and sustainability. To this end, they urged the G20 to mobilize global resources to improve measurements of agricultural productivity and climate parameters, and to stimulate technology transfer to promote a sustainable food future. While these recommendations are not binding, they will be considered at the G20 Leaders Summit, which begins on November 30th in Buenos Aires. In this instance, the leaders of the forum countries are expected to agree to implement these recommendations by 2019.

Specifically, the document proposes a battery of measures to develop a global food system that is sustainable, efficient and accountable to the nutritional needs of consumers. The proposal is to strengthen the global dialogue between public and private actors in order to reach agreements on principles and norms for the development of food systems, to establish benchmarks, and to harmonize and coordinate voluntary private sector standards. It also promotes cooperation between Multilateral Development Banks, regional banks and international organizations to reduce food loss and waste.

The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, was present at the event and stated that “the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is called upon to be a major protagonist of the planet’s food and nutritional security. This requires tackling pending technological issues due to the obvious delays in productivity. In this regard, reference is made to the recommendation to facilitate, within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the organization of a special group of systemically relevant countries, including Argentina and Brazil, to exchange relevant information on policies related to production, consumption and trade.

Next steps
These recommendations will be taken into account during the G20 Leaders Summit, to be held from November 30th to December 1st in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is hoped that these recommendations will be discussed in depth and that the Heads of Government of the G20 member states will announce their action plans there so that these suggestions can be put into practice.