In 2024, an estimated 2.3 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, while chronic hunger affected 96 million more people than in 2015, highlighting a growing global crisis. In response, senior UN officials called for urgent investment and innovation to transform global agrifood systems, which include farming, fisheries, food processing, transport, markets, and consumption—the full chain from field to table.
Lok Bahadur Thapa, President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), emphasized that agrifood systems are central to societal progress, linking the environmental, social, and economic pillars of sustainable development. Food systems provide livelihoods for over 39 percent of the global workforce and 64 percent of jobs in Africa, shaping rural economies, public health, trade, and environmental sustainability. Transforming these systems could generate between $5 trillion and $10 trillion in benefits across health, economic growth, and environmental protection. Thapa also highlighted the importance of engaging young people, given the projected seven percent rise in the global youth population by 2030, to ensure agrifood transformations are inclusive and future-ready.
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed described the meeting as occurring at a “pivotal moment,” noting that hunger remains unacceptably high, fiscal space is shrinking, and pressures on agrifood systems are intensifying. Since the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, 130 countries have developed national pathways to reform food production and distribution, but Mohammed stressed that ambition must now translate into tangible results through scaled solutions, aligned financing, and accelerated action to ensure no one is left behind.
Highlighting 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, Mohammed underscored that women farmers are essential to food security, nutrition, and economic resilience, and that closing gender gaps is both a matter of justice and a driver of better outcomes for all. Discussions at the forum focused on mobilizing finance and leveraging digital innovations—from data systems to emerging technologies—to boost productivity, create decent jobs, and strengthen resilience against climate shocks and market disruptions. Mohammed concluded that translating ambition into action and coordination into results can make agrifood systems a powerful engine for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals while leaving no one behind.
