Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum debate on Food Security
29 agosto 2019

NUTRITION

Food security. The Third Meeting of High Representatives of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum (APEC) was held in Chile from August 15 to 30. As part of this, the Food Security Week was celebrated, where a joint Final Declaration was signed, after sharing regional advances in policies and initiatives, emphasizing four areas: sustainability, digital opportunities, associativity and agrifood value chains, and rural development. Meanwhile, the health group debated the growing rates of childhood obesity in Chile. It is expected that the Forum will act as a catalyst for the promotion of regional ideas on the above-mentioned issues in the medium term and that the countries will address the agreed common priorities for designing policies in favour of the integration, intelligence and sustainability of their food systems.

From 15 to 24 August, the Week of Food Security was held, during which there were workshops on rural development, the strengthening of regulatory cooperation in the area and the sustainable development of agriculture in rural areas. The activities ended with a Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held on 23 and 24 August, led by the Chilean Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker. Four topics were discussed at the meeting: sustainability of food systems, taking advantage of new technologies to promote food security, and methods to increase associativity in food value chains and strengthen rural development.

At the end of the meetings, a declaration was signed that recognizes that the Asia-Pacific region must find ways to provide the growing global population with sufficient, safe, nutritious and quality food. To this end, they agreed on common actions to promote sustainable food systems. They also agreed to promote the use of emerging technologies and digital opportunities, take advantage of partnerships and improve value chains and food trade, and strengthen rural development as a place of opportunity.

At the same time, the Forum’s health group focused, during its meeting on August 19, on the fight against childhood obesity. Regarding this last point, the Chilean Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, highlighted that Chile is the second most obese country of the APEC, which is reflected in the health expenditure that represents 0.5% of the GDP, set to rise to 1.5% on current projections. According to the official, her priority in this matter is to develop comprehensive public policies that tend to improve people’s nutrition.

Next steps

After the Food Security Week in Chile, it is expected that agreed common priorities will be pursued to design policies in favor of the integration, intelligence and sustainability of food systems. It should be remembered that APEC decisions are not binding and, consequently, tend to function more as an incubator of prescient agreements among its members.

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