APN |League of Arab States - Zoom

15 August 2022

Razan Zuayter, chairman of the board of directors of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN), and the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty participated through an intervention in the meeting of the taskforce for preparation of a paper on the initiative of Eradication of Hunger in the Arab Region vis a vis the global food crisis, by virtue of an invitation addressed by the Sub-committee for the Eradication of Hunger in the Arab Region affiliated with the League of Arab States (LAS) and emanating from the League of Arab States.

At the outset of her statement Zuayter alluded to the importance of the preliminary paper prepared, while referring to the importance of instilling the idea that the global food crisis is not new, for international food prices have risen during the past twenty years, and the drivers of such rise are identical with what was associated with the food crises in the years 2008 and 2011 which may be summarized in terms of a rise in the prices of energy, financial speculation, wars, in addition to the Corona pandemic and climate change.

The chairman of the board of directors identified the core of the crisis in our Arab region and attributed it to two basic causes, namely wars, internecine conflicts and occupation, where 60% of the hungry in the world live in areas affected by conflicts, which has led to a collapse of the food system, while the second cause is the lack of political will to achieve integrated food security and food sovereignty.