South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Forum

Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me first congratulate WFP China for establishing the South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Platform, which is celebrating its first anniversary.

I am delighted to be attending this important event, the South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Forum, that will allow us to advance on previous discussions, with inputs from technical experts, development practitioners and policy advisors that address some of the most daunting challenges that we face in our endeavor to achieve the ambitions of SDG 2: Zero Hunger.

China’s development progress can serve as an example for much of the developing world. China currently feeds almost 20% of the world’s population while having less than 10% of the world’s arable land.

In addition, in 2020 China announced the remarkable achievement of eliminating extreme poverty nationally, a significant advance towards meeting the targets of SDG 1. China is now focused on advancing rural revitalization to build rural prosperity and to reduce the gaps that exist between rural and urban areas. These experiences can provide important lessons learned for the rest of the world and help to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.

Today, development progress globally has stalled, and we are still grappling with the effects of the pandemic. Our food systems are failing to deliver food security and equitable livelihoods for all.

In 2022, 258 million people across 58 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels, up from 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021. The problem is more acute in the face of major shocks and stressors like the pandemic, financial crisis, geopolitical conflict and climate change. These challenges are particularly severe in certain regions. The Horn of Africa region is facing repeated droughts, displacement and food insecurity, and these problems are increasingly intertwined.

Recognizing the particular challenge that the Horn of Africa faces, the UN in China has recently launched the China – Horn of Africa – United Nations Transformative Partnership Initiative (TPI), which brings together government representatives from both China and Horn of Africa countries and the UN offices in both China and the Horn of Africa, to develop meaningful partnerships to address these challenges. Just a little over a week ago, we hosted an event on Building Drought Resilience and Increasing Food Security in the region, and we hope that concrete actions will be taken as a result of the TPI to improve agricultural productivity and food security in the region.

The WFP’s China Centre of Excellence has the potential to play an important role in this work, as it aims to leverage China’s successful experience in reducing poverty and hunger, facilitating many activities to this end and can be an important contributor to advancing this work.

Our increasing digitalization is also creating enormous potential to facilitate our response to the myriad development challenges, and the WFP South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Platform is a concrete step towards tapping into it. The Platform connects fragmented expertise, bridges knowledge capacities and deficiencies, and brings development practitioners and partners together. More importantly, it fosters innovation and partnerships, encouraging youth development and women's empowerment in South-South learning and cooperation.

In conclusion, let me commend WFP for creating this platform and organizing today’s forum. It is our mutual goal to facilitate a better equipped and more empowered South-South learning and cooperation process, and I sincerely hope that today’s discussions move us toward this goal. I look forward to the opportunities and inspirations that the platform and the forum will bring about.

Thank you!