WASHINGTON, November 3, 2020 - Germany became the first donor today to invest in Food Systems 2030, a new World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund that proposes to help countries maximize the impact of their public spending and transform their food systems to increase food security and reach their 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced over US$ 17 million (15 million euros) to contribute to the creation of foundations for sustainable food systems that deliver improved livelihoods and safe, affordable and nutritious diets for all.
This catalytic financing will promote new agriculture and food models that simultaneously improve the health of people, planet, and economies. It comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the massive cost of zoonotic diseases emerging in natural environments destabilized by human activity and spreading from animals to humans. Measures taken to slow the pandemic have also tested the strength of food supply chains that provide millions of jobs and keep rural and urban areas stocked in safe, affordable and nutritious food. COVID-19 has also stressed the importance of healthy diets for people’s immunity and resilience in the face of disease.
Germany announced its contribution as part of a broader investment in healthier food systems and pandemic prevention. "Even if the situation is dramatic – COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic. One lesson from this must be that the international community has to work together better to prevent future pandemics,” said Dr Gerd Müller, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany. “To that end, we have to improve the mutual integration of our projects in the field of One Health and launch new initiatives – on human and animal health, on access to safe drinking water, on the protection of biodiversity, and on healthy food. By contributing to the Food Systems 2030 fund, we are giving a targeted boost to food safety and to the early detection of zoonoses in food production.”
The One Health approach explicitly recognizes the interlinkage of human health, animal health, and the health of ecosystems. Over 70 percent of emerging infectious diseases affecting humans have their origins in animals, including COVID-19. The livestock sector is also responsible for about 73 percent of all antibiotic consumption, increasing the risk of deadly antimicrobial resistance which may further compromise human health in the future.
“We welcome Germany’s commitment to help countries rethink the way they manage agriculture and food to mitigate risks and generate better development outcomes,” said Martien Van Nieuwkoop, Global Director of the Agriculture and Food Global Practice at the World Bank. “Learning from best practices and drawing on innovative approaches, there is tremendous scope to modernize the policies and practices that govern agriculture and food, and help countries address the pervasive challenges of rural poverty, environmental degradation, and illnesses connected to unsafe practices and poor diets.”
Food Systems 2030 seeks to leverage public financing, private sector investments and consumer spending towards food systems transformation. It will provide policy advice and analytical products to country partners, steer World Bank lending and engage with the private sector in pursuit of one goal: achieving a food system that delivers healthy people, a healthy planet and healthy economies. It will promote new ways of doing business while addressing market and institutional incentives, to put food systems on a better path. To achieve its objectives, Food Systems 2030 will support integrated activities along nine pathways: better diets; prevention of zoonotic diseases; improved food safety; reduction in GHGs; reduction in pollution; improved land, water and food loss and waste management; promotion of productivity growth; increased job creation; maintaining trade flows.
Last Updated: Nov 03, 2020
