Countries in Europe and Central Asia gather to address challenges in ensuring food security and sustainable agrifood systems

 Lodz – Some 50 countries from Europe and Central Asia will join the 33rd Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Regional Conference for Europe (ERC33) to discuss pressing issues of food security and agrifood systems transformation. The meeting comes as at a time of protracted crises, as the region is coping with the challenges brought about by COVID-19. Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine is affecting production and trade of staple agrifood products and threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions in Europe and Central Asia and beyond.

Participating countries will discuss matters affecting world food security and agriculture, including a surge in global food prices, and  share approaches for transforming agrifood systems in Europe and Central Asia and ensuring sustainable food value chains.

The Regional Conference is FAO’s highest governing body in Europe and Central Asia. The four-day conference, hosted this year by the Government of Poland from 10 to 13 May, will be held as a hybrid event, both at the Doubletree Hilton hotel in Lodz and online with participants following the webcast.

Agriculture ministers and other government officials from across Europe and Central Asia will be joined at the conference by civil society groups, private sector representatives, development partners and observers.

Turning the tide with FAO’s four betters

FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022–2031 will inform discussions during the conference. It will help guide countries to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all, leaving no one behind.

Sessions of ERC33 will include remarks by:

• Director-General QU Dongyu, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Henryk Kowalczyk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Poland

• Zbigniew Rau, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

• Jamshid Khodjaev, Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan and Chairperson of ERC32
• Hans Hoogeveen, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN Organizations in Rome, and Independent Chairperson of the FAO Council
• Gabriel Ferrero, Chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
• Spokesperson for civil society organizations (tbc)

The Conference will provide a platform for high-level dialogue, among others, on the following issues:

• The road to transformative agrifood systems in Europe and Central Asia – Regional actions to implement the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–31
• Sustainable food value chains for nutrition, a practical approach for transforming agrifood systems for healthy diets in Europe and Central Asia

The following side events will take place during the conference:

• The launch of the Regional Technical Platform on Green Agriculture
• Fostering the enabling environment for the digital transformation of agriculture through country strategies: national and village perspectives
• United Nations Decade for Family Farming and peasant rights in times of crisis