SDG 2 and interlinkages with other SDGs – Zero Hunger

9 July 2024, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM, Conference Room 4
Intervention delivered by Renu Rajbhandari
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development & Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism


Progress towards reducing hunger is very slow. A recent FAO report states that 735 million people are currently facing hunger. Out of them 402 million are from the UN ESCAP region. The same report elaborates that approximately 2.4 billion people globally did not have constant access to food among them and around 900 million individuals faced severe food insecurity in 2022. Now in 2024 the situation has got worse. An OHCHR press release from January 16th, 2024 stated that currently every single person in Gaza is hungry, a quarter of the population is starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water, and famine is imminent. Among all these, women, children and people from marginalized groups suffer the most.

Hunger can’t be eradicated alone. Without commitment for fundamental structural change this is not going to be realized. For this, I would like to draw the attention of the UN and member states to the following recommendations:  

  1. Immediate ceasefire and peace talks in Palestine, Ukraine, and other countries going through conflict. Ensure that not under any circumstance should food be used as a weapon in context of war and conflicts in any country.  Instead, recognize this as a universal human right.
  2. Ensure feminist food sovereignty that is inclusive of indigenous and women’s access and control of land and resources.
  3. Highlight and oppose practices of non-recognition of women as farmers along with the harmful effects of digitalization in agriculture and how this increases food insecurity and inequalities between peoples and communities. 
  4. Highlight and oppose the growing corporatization of the food system impacting local economies and environmental sustainability.
  5. Review and expose false solutions to food security such as green financing, e-commerce, and carbon markets and ensure that they get completely stopped from further harming small food producers, the environment and local economies.
  6. End all forms of discrimination based on gender at work and throughout the cycle of food production and distribution, ensuring women’s leadership at each step of food production and distribution.