Dialogue on Agricultural Cooperation and Food Security: Toward a more resilient and sustainable Horn of Africa

A recording of the remarks can be found on YouTube and Tencent Video

H.E. Wu Peng, the Ambassadors of Djibouti, the African Union, Dean of the African Group, Our host Ambassador Teshome,

Colleagues from the UN family,

Members from the Government, foundations, private sector, civil societies organizations,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to our “Dialogue on Agricultural Cooperation and Food Security: Towards a more Resilient and Sustainable Horn of Africa”— a joint initiative of the Horn of Africa (HoA) countries and the United Nations in China. I want to offer my sincere appreciation to Ambassador Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil, the Ambassador of Djibouti, for his partnership in convening this important event, and a special welcome to our dear Director-General Wu Peng, who continues to provide important support for China-Africa-UN cooperation.

But let me start with the story. It's a story from my home country, India. A country that has seen countless hunger-related deaths. I come from the state of West Bengal. We saw the famous Bengal famine of 1943, which my own family was affected by. An estimated 3.8 million people perished from starvation, malaria or other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions, and lack of health care. Millions were impoverished as the crisis over large segments of the economy and catastrophically disrupted the social fabric. Ladies and gentlemen, the effects of this still linger. Scientists have found that in people who had been in utero or were children in the womb during the famine, this lingers in their DNA to this day, and they are at higher risk of premature death.

In the 1960s, India again was in the grip of a famine, and Lester Brown, an American resource economist,  risked his career in 1965 when he advised former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson to save India from absolute catastrophe. Nearly 30 million people were on the brink of starvation. Lester Brown had spent his career making shrewd projections about the food, water, and energy people need to survive, and pushing governments to respond. None of this math brought tears to his eyes except the time in 1965 that he made some calculations advising the President of the United States to save India from catastrophe. 600 ships of wheat were dispatched from the USA to India, making it the largest movement of grain between two countries in history.

The President charged Brown with drawing up a bilateral agreement which would cover both his short- and long-term concerns. President Johnson wanted a policy to solve two problems: to avoid the coming disaster, but also set India on a path to independent and stable agriculture. Thanks to the convergence of big data, technology and innovation, the Green Revolution started. In fact, the term Green Revolution was at that time coined by USAID. And under the leadership of a scientist Dr Swaminathan, the Father of the Green Revolution of India, high yield variety seeds were introduced into Indian agriculture for the first time. The main aim of the Green Revolution was to make India self-sufficient when it came to food grains. And then how did the spectre of starvation vanish? Largely because of better distribution.



Employment schemes in rain-deficit areas injected purchasing power where it was most needed. Slow but steady expansion of the infrastructure networks helped the flow of grain from Place A to Place B across the country. The public distribution system was expanded. Hunger remained, but did not escalate into starvation. And by the 1990s, hunger diminished too.

The spread of irrigation stemmed the loss of crops. The share of the irrigated area expanded roughly from one-third to 55% of total acreage. Earlier, most irrigation was through canals. Then they were replaced by tubewells.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Today with a population of about 1.4 billion, which is steadily overtaking China, India, by and large, is food self-sufficient. Having seen the perils of repeated hunger calamities, China itself, with barely 9% of the world's arable land, feeds 1.4 billion people. Why is it? The question we have to ask - is that Africa, with 60% of the world's arable land, still needs to import $100 billion worth of food every year. So, we are facing profound, growing and interconnected challenges. These challenges are felt in the HoA region, where I have served. I've served in Sudan. I've served in South Sudan. I've served in Somalia. I've served in Kenya. It is environmental degradation, climate disasters, weakened economies, violent extremism, rapid urbanization, and other factors that have led to a constant state of humanitarian crises. And against this backdrop, the region is currently facing a devastating drought which has resulted in profound food shortages and inadequate water supplies.

Ladies and gentlemen, it reminds me of an American movie called Groundhog Day. I've been serving in this region since the year 2000, and it has become a repeated phenomenon of constant deprivation, constant starvation, constant hunger and the frequency of the droughts has expanded exponentially.

So, as many gather today for a discussion in the Preventing Famine and Fighting Food Insecurity Roundtable at the 77th Session of the General Assembly in New York, we are reminded that experts estimate that around 20 million people could go hungry this year as a result of the worsening situation in the HoA.

At this critical juncture in history for the countries and people of the HoA, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remain an essential blueprint for achieving a more sustainable and just future that leaves no one behind, and international cooperation remains key to implementing that blueprint.

And therefore, South-South Cooperation (SSC) that DG Wu Peng mentioned is a powerful instrument to realize the transformations required to deliver on the promise of the SDGs. As the largest developing country and the second-largest economy in the world, China is a critical SSC partner, harbouring huge potential to advance development in the Global South. Africa, as the next emerging market and the future engine of the world economy, has massive potential not only to achieve the SDGs, as seen in World Bank predictions. They say that Africa's food markets could create a $1 trillion US dollar opportunity in the next eight years. The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, has said, and I quote: “True transformative change is the only way out to get us back on track – and ensure that we remain on track – towards a Zero Hunger. We cannot continue fighting hunger using the same approaches as before. The unprecedented hunger and malnutrition challenges before us are urgently calling for new, whole-of-systems solutions.”

Despite its challenges, the HoA is the youngest and most diverse sub-region on the African continent; and is a region with enormous innovation, vast resources and some of the fastest-growing economies. Political reforms initiated in the last several years have sparked renewed hope for increased stability in the region. A strong and balanced partnership with China has the potential to contribute to a new era for Africa’s development and for helping to bring much-needed peace and economic transformation in the HoA.

Recognizing the importance of these efforts and the unique position of the UN to contribute, the UN in China has offered technical support to help translate commitments into fruitful cooperation. We have committed expertise and knowledge, with a view to ensuring that China-Africa cooperation is demand-driven and in line with countries’ expectations, needs, and national development priorities, as well as aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

To date, the UN in China, in collaboration with the African Ambassadors’ Group in China, the UN Development Coordination Offices in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and UN Country Teams in relevant African countries, has delivered on this commitment.

In January of 2022, with generous support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the UN supported a FOCAC 2021 Follow-Up Symposium focused on the theme -“A greener, more prosperous, and healthier future together.” The event was initiated by the African Ambassadors’ Group in Beijing and supported by the Government of China.

The African Ambassadors’ Group has specifically requested that the UN continue providing knowledge and expertise to ensure that Africa’s needs remain central to this partnership, to advance new initiatives, ensure alignment with international norms and standards, and act as a convener of diverse stakeholders, just as we gather here today.

We take this role very seriously and stand ready to assist colleagues on both sides to turn commitments into action, to turn plans into sustainable projects that bring real impact to the lives of African people.

Accordingly, today is one of the first of a series of convenings that brings together Ambassadors, government officials, foundations, chambers of commerce, academics and others to explore concrete entry points for multilateral support to operationalize commitments at FOCAC and the follow-on symposium. These discussions will indeed coincide with and help inform consultations occurring at the country level between UN representative offices and other stakeholders. We need the private sector. We need state-owned enterprises. We need all forms of partnership to unlock the real agriculture and the agri-business potential of Africa. I also want to take this opportunity to welcome the American and the British Chambers of Commerce, who have joined us over here, and the Chinese Chambers of Commerce, who are with us today.

We focus our first initiative on cooperation between China and the HoA countries, and we look to the UN’s Comprehensive Regional Prevention Strategy for the HoA and Agenda 2063 as the guiding framework for this engagement.

In light of the ongoing food crisis in the region, we prioritize prong 7 of this Strategy, focusing on agricultural cooperation and partnership. We know that, in addition to addressing the immediate needs of millions of people across the region, food security is a foundational need that we must meet before other aspirations are met. Meaningfully put together, China itself would not have eradicated extreme poverty without focusing on agriculture.

Excellencies, together with the UN families in the Horn of Africa, we will work hard, very hard, to translate the aspirations of this critical region, the aspirations of this critical partnership, into action and results.

I thank you.