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Sdgs for People, Planet, and Prosperity SDGs for people, planet and prosperity FAO’s SDG compliance work as a means for leveraging sustainable investments in agri-food systems SDGs for people, planet and prosperity FAO’s SDG compliance work as a means for leveraging sustainable investments in agri-food systems Roberto Ridolfi Assistant-Director General, Programme Support and Technical Cooperation Department FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS, ROME 2019 Required citation: Ridolfi R. 2019. SDGs for people, planet, and prosperity. FAO’s SDG compliance work as a means for leveraging sustainable investments in agri-food systems. Rome, FAO. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. © FAO, 2019 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode). 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Cover photographs © FAO CONTENTS Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................1 The realization of the global sustainable development agenda depends on the successful transformation of food systems ................................................................................4 Achieving the SDGs by successfully engaging the private sector.................................................8 Mainstreaming SDG compliance: a concrete proposal and FAO’s contribution..................... 12 Further reflections on potential future work ................................................................................. 16 iii INTRODUCTION The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development along with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) on Financing for Development calls for worldwide action from governments, the private sector and civil society to align their strategies, operations and activities with the principles outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda marks a significant shift from traditional development approaches by recognizing the important role the private sector has to play in achieving sustainable development for all. Financing the realization of all SDGs will require additional annual investments of approximately 2.5 trillion USD1. Even a significant increase in official development assistance will not be sufficient to close this investment gap, and it is thus essential ©FAO to engage the private sector and to ensure that private investments be SDG-compliant. The transformation of food systems is key to Given the need to mainstream SDG compliance achieving many SDGs. If considerable efforts into private sector operations along agricultural are made to address growing inequalities value chains, FAO is actively working to (such as those related to age and gender), contribute to this complex task, in line with its reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance responsibilities as a custodian UN agency for 21 the sustainable use of national resources and SDG indicators and as contributing agency for reduce food loss and waste2, food systems can be a further six. The Organization will therefore major drivers for the achievement of the SDGs. further enhance its support to the creation Conversely, under a business-as-usual scenario, of enabling environments for SDG-compliant high levels of food insecurity and unsustainable investments while also significantly increasing economic growth are likely to persist, with its engagement with financial institutions. The substantial negative impacts on health, political ultimate aim of this process is to ensure that the stability and peace. For example, under a Organization’s strong knowledge base available business-as-usual scenario, about 570 million to governments must be equally for use in people are expected to be undernourished investment contracts for loans, guarantees and in 2030, whereas a transformation towards equity, which development bankers and indeed sustainability would reduce this number by private banks and investment funds, are signing. almost half3 (see also figure 1), or even cut it This will make SDG science concretely available to zero. Similarly, actions that will contribute to the private sector through single tools. to achieve SDG10 (Reduced inequalities) and ______________________________________________________________________________________ increase the availability of nutritious food, 1 UNCTAD. 2014. World Investment Report 2014: investing in the SDGs: an action plan. will allow consumers to choose healthier diets United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva. which will reduce the negative impacts of food 2 FAO. 2018. The future of food and agriculture – Alternative pathways to 2050. Rome. 224 on health. This is key to, inter alia, reducing pp. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. 3 Ibid. the prevalence of obesity, which has increased 4 FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2018. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the over recent years and reached 13.2% in 20174. World 2018. Building climate resilience for food security and nutrition. Rome, FAO. 1 This paper provides an overview of the rationale, The second section assesses in detail the background, methodology and scope of FAO’s question of why achieving the SDGs requires a support to SDG compliance. In the outlook of this successful engagement with the private sector, work, there is the concrete possibility that a solid supported by the availability of concretely policy desire for the mainstreaming of the SDGs applicable tools. The third section outlines can trigger a system of quality certification for FAO’s concrete proposal to mainstream SDG sustainability for people, planet and prosperity. compliance into business operations and the work carried out in this regard to date. The first section explains why the realization of the global sustainable development agenda This paper was written with the collaboration depends on the successful transformation of of many FAO colleagues, in particular food systems, building on recent data on social, Yannick Fiedler, Tommaso Mattei, and economic, demographic and environmental Davide Zaccaretti for the graphic layout. trends. Figure 1: Number of undernourished people: global, historical and projected* Source: FAO. 2018. The future of food and agriculture – Alternative pathways to 2050. Rome. p. 112. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ * Here is a legend of the scenarios: • Business as usual: this global future develops according to socio-economic, technological and environmental patterns that fail to address many challenges for food access and utilization, as well as for sustainable food
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