Open Letter on COVID-19, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security
June 16, 2020
Like many of our Australian and global partners, the Crawford Fund has made a number of statements related to the impact of COVID-19 on global food and nutrition security.
An international effort is underway to bring attention to the need for concerted action to reduce the impact of the current pandemic on food and nutrition security.
The Crawford Fund, as well as members of the Crawford Fund board and family, have signed an open Letter to the UN, G-20, and National Governments on COVID-19 and Agriculture for Food and Nutrition Security.
“We are writing to call for a set of internationally coordinated, locally relevant actions to address the medium- and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on agriculture, food, and nutrition security. The current global health crisis has disrupted supply chains and laid bare the need to address the inter-related challenges of hunger, malnutrition, climate change, and environmental degradation and has emphasized the need for concerted, proactive and collective actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015.”
Our board member Professor Tim Reeves and Crawford Fund ACT Coordinator, Dr Tony Fischer are amongst the initial group of signatories. The open letter was drafted by Ismail Serageldin, former chair of the CGIAR; Ann Tutwiler, Chair of the Independent Steering Committee for the Water, Land and Ecosystems Research Program of the CGIAR; Raj Paroda, Former Chairman of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation; Uma Lele, President Elect of the International Association of Agricultural Economists and Sarwat Hussain, former Head of Agriculture Communications at the World Bank. It was then reviewed and approved by over 50 other distinguished specialists and the initiative was supported by many very eminent people.
Many more people have since joined this initiative which is being brought to the attention of decision-makers and the public all over the world.
We are pleased to bring this initiative to attention of an Australian audience.
You can read the full communication here. And like the Fund, you can add your signature to the growing list here.
