Seychelles affirms its commitment to the UN Food Systems transformation |25 September 2021
President Ramkalawan
President Wavel Ramkalawan has announced Seychelles’ commitment to the global call to reform the food systems.
The president delivered the statement virtually during the first United Nations Food Systems Summit held on Wednesday in the margins of the UN General Assembly, New York.
“Seychelles is grateful to be part of the UN global initiative to re-shape and atone the global food systems in the pursuit of greater prosperity, food sovereignty and the attainment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs),” affirmed the president.
President Ramkalawan stated that as a small island developing state, Seychelles’ current food systems depends primarily on imported commodities which makes us vulnerable to external shocks. This, he added, has been proven throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, whereby the Seychelles government have found the necessity of reviewing its national development strategy with economic innovation and diversification being priority areas.
“The domestic food sectors have great potential for growth and I am happy to see that some of the outcome of the process include a clearer vision of the country’s needs, greater resilience to face the challenging goals and well as defined pathways to transform the position of Seychelles in terms of its food sufficiency and food sovereignty targets,” he said.
The head of state underscored the importance that Seychelles attaches to this agenda and to ensure its implementation through the outcome of the dialogues during this Summit, by articulating the findings and project ideas in the country’s food systems transformation strategy.
“We will invest within the possibilities of our economic resources to bring to life the vision for a domestic food system less dependent of import,” President Ramkalawan said.
In conclusion, President Ramkalawan thanked the UN agencies and all other partners for their support and noted that the government of Seychelles looks forward to further collaborate to harness the country’s collective resources and know-how. Furthermore, through win-win partnership, to build a new synergy to address the challenges of the food systems transformation.
Other highlights of the Summit was the chair’s Summary Statement of Action delivered by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, where he called on the world to keep its promises for a better future through food systems that work for the people, planet and prosperity. Furthermore, to meet the commitments the UN member states made to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
During the Summit, other world leaders gave their commitments to more resilient, inclusive and sustainable food systems after an 18-month process of dialogues and engagement at community, national, regional and global level.
Press release from State House