By Verenardo Meeme, February 2, 2021
On January 22, 2021, Federal Minister Klöckner welcomed 76 official colleagues from all over the world as well as high-ranking representatives from thirteen international organizations to the Agriculture Ministers’ Conference as part of the Ministry’s GFFA. This is the first conference of agriculture ministers in Berlin to be held virtually as COVID-19 persists.
UN Secretary General António Guterres sent a video message in which he emphasized that efforts must be intensified to achieve the “zero hunger” agenda by 2030. “Our agriculture should give everyone access to a healthy diet, adequate employment opportunities, while minimizing waste.”
A joint communiqué was adopted, which Federal Minister Klöckner sent to Ms. Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dr. Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Food Systems Summit 2021 and Dr. Eloit, Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
You can find the final communiqué here: DOWNLOAD COMMUNIQUÉ
Key highlights of the final ambitious communiqué as countries battle COVID-19
In their final communiqué, the Agriculture Ministers’ Conference agreed on the following goals:
- To intensify efforts in order to achieve the UN goal of the 2030 Agenda “No hunger” despite COVID-19.
- Maintaining food production, markets open and food chains functioning in the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To prevent future pandemics, support the “One Health” approach, strengthen animal health, create resilient animal health systems and improve health management for wild species.
- To contribute to climate protection, to improve the carbon sequestration in soils, to fight further deforestation of our forests, to reduce food losses and waste
- To support agriculture in adapting to climate change through measures in the areas of water, biodiversity, breeding and animal husbandry.
- To support the approach to integrated, sustainable and resilient food systems and thus to make a contribution to the UN Food Systems Summit 2021.
