APN | Beirut

5 and 7 March 2024

 

APN Chairperson, Razan Zuayter, addressed two pressing priorities during the sessions of the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development (AFSD), convened by ESCWA. The AFSD serves as the primary regional platform for monitoring and assessing the progress of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Arab region. It is held annually in collaboration with the League of Arab States and various United Nations agencies operating within the Arab region.

Zuayter made her first intervention on 5 March 2024, during the session titled "Reforming Public Institutions for Peacebuilding and Fostering Inclusive Societies". In this session, she called for the adoption of a comprehensive understanding of the structural and root causes—social, environmental, cultural, and economic—that contribute to food insecurity. She emphasized the importance of ensuring all economic and social rights for rural communities to prevent their migration to urban areas.

Additionally, she emphasized the importance of supporting volunteer efforts and agricultural civil society organizations, highlighting their involvement in the stages of analysis, planning, implementation, and accountability. She underlined the significance of guaranteeing equitable wages for agricultural laborers and standardizing the duration of their work.

On 7 March 2024, Zuayter delivered her second intervention, presenting the recommendations of Arab civil society in response to government speakers. This took place during the session titled "Food for Thought: The United Nations Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2) outcomes in the Arab region: action plan for resilient food systems transformation". She emphasized the utmost urgency to utilize all available resources to promptly stop the genocide in Gaza and cease the use of food as a weapon. Zuayter stressed the necessity of adopting accurate terminology to address the challenges, emphasizing that the ongoing situation in Gaza constitutes genocide, despite often being referred to as a crisis or conflict. She underscored that the term "regional cooperation" lacks specificity, advocating instead for Arab integration through an agricultural-economic integration strategy. This integration would be achieved by promoting intra-regional trade, thereby securing food sovereignty for Arab countries, which is essential for maintaining political and sovereign decision-making autonomy.