Committee on World Food Security (CFS) High-Level Partner Event on the role of sustainable, resilient and inclusive aquatic food systems in driving COVID-19 recovery and global food system transformation. 

Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020   

Time: 17:00-18:30 (UTC+8) 

Watch the recording:

COVID-19 has exacerbated efforts to improve food and nutrition security, revealing food systems are not robust to cope with shocks, causing inequalities in food affordability, accessibility and diet quality. This is our wakeup call. Similar disruptions will occur as climate change influences our world in unpredictable ways.  

As research and policy agendas pivot to COVID-19 recovery; our challenge is not to restore food systems but to lead resilient, inclusive and sustainable transformation. Aquatic foods are essential to this transformation. They are vital to the livelihoods, food and nutrition security of billions; especially the vulnerable, the hardest hit by such shocks.   

Aquatic food systems can produce 75 percent more nutritious food than they do today, boosting diets and economic growth. Despite their importance, aquatic foods are frequently overlooked in important policy decisions due to the critical gaps in knowledge of their ability to contribute to the global sustainable development agenda by 2030.   

This CFS High-Level Special Event on Food Security and Nutrition partner event took a unique approach by bringing geographically diverse and multisector representatives together to mobilize and coordinate a global movement to create shared value and co-design interventions that make aquatic foods an integral part of the food systems transformation for healthy people and planet. 

Invited speakers: 

  • Bibi Giyose, Senior Nutrition Officer, Policy and Programmes in the Nutrition and Food Division, FAO
  • Suleiman Ihiabe Isa, Founder, Spring Continental Harvest Limited; Member, North East Commodity Association (NECAS), Nigeria 
  • Rosalie Masu, Deputy Director, Inshore Fisheries Division, Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Solomon Islands 
  • Rajeev Ranjan, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, India 
  • Shakuntala Thilsted, Research Program Leader, Value Chains and Nutrition, WorldFish; Member of the Steering Committee (StC) of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) 

Moderator:

  • Yvonne Pinto, Director, Aline Impact Limited

Follow  @WorldFishCenter, @UN_CFS  and the hashtag  #CFSSpecialEvent  on Twitter to check out some of the past conversations around this event.

To explore more related publications in preparation for the event, check out our reading list below: