H.E. Mario Arvelo
Chair of United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) for 2017-19
Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are vital for food security and nutrition says Mario Arvelo, Chair of United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
How is the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) supporting the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development?
Everything we do is designed to provide support to countries towards achieving the 2030 Agenda, with a primary focus on zero hunger. We seek concrete, practical and knowledge-based solutions for addressing the root causes of hunger and malnutrition with voluntary guidelines and policy recommendations on more than a dozen subjects essential to food security and nutrition.
What are multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) and why are they so important for food security and nutrition?
Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are collaborative arrangements between different spheres of society, including the public and private sectors, non-governmental organisations and many other actors, such as academia. These stakeholders pool their human, financial and knowledge-based resources, while sharing risks and responsibilities.
The primary responsibility for combatting hunger and malnutrition and ensuring their eradication rests upon national governments.
How can MSPs be effective?
The latest report on MSPs from CFS High-Level panel of experts includes a recommendation that serves as a useful orientation for governments and other stakeholders involved in the fight to eradicate hunger and malnutrition: a call to action to create policy frameworks to facilitate more effective partnerships to achieve the realisation of the right to food. These new collaborative arrangements have the potential to forge more efficient, effective and inclusive responses to global policy problems.
How can achieving food security and nutrition be financed?
The primary responsibility for combatting hunger and malnutrition and ensuring their eradication rests upon national governments. Alas, not all public structures can deliver all funding needed to achieve zero hunger for all mankind by 2030 — and borrowing is not a sustainable, long-term solution.
Constructive ways forward include creating new investments by leveraging what we already know works well. Public-private partnerships, tapping into philanthropies, can make sources of finance available. Spending in human capital, with an emphasis on building local capacities and resilience, has proven to attract and generate funding.
Ultimately, the full integration of women and young people as equal partners at all stages of food systems will unleash self-sustainable funding for development that will benefit every citizen of every country, sending hunger to the history books.
What are the challenges of creating effective MSPs?
The keys for unlocking effective partnerships are, firstly, adequate information and secondly, political will. Adequate information includes being aware of the inherent value of MSPs, the need for inclusiveness, transparency and accountability in MSP relationships, and a clear view of goals. As for the second challenge, political will that is strong, focused and sustained, is the common prerequisite for solving this and all other issues surrounding food security and nutrition.
Source: H.E. Mario Arvelo,
Chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to FAO, IFAD and WFP
