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Elita Chikwati-Agriculture Reporter 

The national dialogue on food systems launched yesterday by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement and the United Nations in Zimbabwe, is expected to contribute towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2030 of an upper middle income economy.

The dialogue, running under the theme “Transforming Production and Food Systems in Zimbabwe”, is the first of three National Food Systems Dialogues to be hosted in Zimbabwe.

Yesterday’s function was attended by stakeholders from the entire food systems value chain, including inputs providers, producers, suppliers and consumers.

Launching the National Food Systems Dialogues, Lands Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said the dialogues were adopted to enable systematic and inclusive opportunities for stakeholders to be engaged in food systems.

He said Government’s focus on transforming production and food systems was in line with the objectives of the UN Food Systems Summit to be held in New York in September.

Dr Masuka said Zimbabwe had communicated to the United Nations its intention to contribute to the Food Systems Summit by convening the dialogues at national and sub-national levels by organising this event.

“These dialogues are coming at a time where the nation is grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic which in some way has also contributed to the disruption of the food systems in Zimbabwe.

“This disruption in global value chains for supply have also given opportunity for localisation of production for which Zimbabwe has taken advantage of, as seen from the bumper harvest of 2020 season. Bringing together a diversity of stakeholders will provide an important opportunity for participants to debate, collaborate, and take action towards a better future.

“We should also understand that the land reform process has reshaped the agricultural landscape spurring local economies that could be engines for land transformation and industrialisation for Vision 2030,” he said.  UN resident coordinator Ms Maria Ribeiro said the UN country team was in the process of developing a five-year UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework in support of national development priorities. 

The cooperation framework has set environmental protection, climate resilience and natural resource management as one of the four key strategic priority areas.

“I am delighted to note that dialogues will be held in the provinces. This is indeed, a good way of walking the talk on devolution and decentralisation policy to meet people where they are. 

“I am confident that through these national and subsequent provincial dialogues, as well as other dialogues that are being organised non-state actors, including youth groups will present a strong position for transformed food systems in Zimbabwe,” she said. She said FAO was supporting Government to review the National Land Policy, while under the Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Programme funded by World Bank and managed by UNOPS, UN agencies (WFP, FAO, UNICEF and WHO) were working to support the recovery efforts. 

“UNDP is supporting over 840,000 people in 18 vulnerable districts with resilience building, FAO, WFP and UNDP are supporting in rehabilitating and operationalise over 34 irrigation schemes in Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland South provinces while WFP remains heavily invested in providing in cash and in-kind food assistance to drought affected rural communities, as well as urban populations affected by Covid-19,” she said.

The objective of the UN global Food Systems Summit is to come up with solutions to transform food production, consumption, and the ecosystem to “build forward better” from Covid-19 and achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

The Summit aims to generate significant action and measurable progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, raise awareness and elevate public discussion about how reforming food systems can benefit people and the environment and develop principles to guide governments and other stakeholders looking to leverage among other things.