Andrea Macchioni of the Italian Development Cooperation and Chair of the Mountain Partnership Steering Committee
On July 28, 2021, The UIMF and UVU Foreign Affairs club participated in a virtual session of the Mountain Partnership's Pre-Summit Event on Food Systems in Mountains. The event was moderated by François Pythoud, Special Envoy for International Sustainable Agriculture to the Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland; and formed part of the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit hosted in Rome in partnership with the Italian government. The Pre-Summit and Summit are aimed at “bringing together diverse actors from around the world to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” as part of the 2030 Agenda.
Presentation on mountain food systems by Fausto Jori, CEO of EcorNaturaSi
The parallel event of the Mountain Partnership (MP), under the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was the only to be focused exclusively on the importance of food systems in mountain communities and regions, and how to improve and sustain them. Despite their immense importance to local and global communities, mountain food systems are vulnerable and face challenges associated with outmigration, abandonment, an inability to access markets due to a lack of infrastructure, and agrobiodiversity loss, among others. These and other threats to mountain food system sustainability greatly affect the rural populations as well as the urban centers who depend on and benefit (or could benefit) from them socially, economically, and materially as mountains are naturally rich sources of culture and raw commodities. The general population relies upon the resources and societal value produced by mountain people. Agriculture and food production are critical to economics and development in mountain regions and must be protected.
José Valls Bedeau, Policy Officer of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division at FAO
José Valls Bedeau emphasized “that 346 million mountain rural people are vulnerable to food insecurity. This vulnerability is driven by the marginalization of the mountain people and mountain areas, as well as natural disasters, conflicts and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Measures must be taken to secure these vital systems and promote sustainability on the local, national, regional and global scales. The importance of mountain foodsystems to the world will be discussed at the Summit and has been recognized by the G20 Matera Declaration. However, while these initiatives and coalitions are resilient efforts at preserving mountain food systems, additional action is necessary to ensure their survival.
Izabella Koziell, Deputy Director General, ICIMOD
As our contribution to the event, we provided a example demonstrating how Point #2 of the Agenda, “the role of women and youth in the mountains,” could be implemented through the UIMF model of student engaged learning mountain advocacy in interaction with the three mountain targets 6.6, 15.1, and 15.4; as outlined by UIMF mentor Baktybek Abdrisaev in Sustainable Mountain Development Advocacy Through Student Engaged Learning by Observing International Mountain Day: The Case of Utah Valley University, published in the November 2020 issue of the Mountain Research and Development journal.
The UIMF further pledged support of the Mountain Partnership and the UN 2030 Agenda as it concerns “restor[ing] mountain ecosystems for improving food availability to mountain populations.” We will continue to support such initiatives aimed at the development and sustainability of mountain regions and serve as local and global leaders.
Dallas Karren, UIMF President
STUDENT REFLECTIVE ESSAYS
21-07-30-Alitha Thompson-My experience at UN Food Summit Pre-Summit
