APN| LAS - Zoom
19 June 2022
Within the deliberations of the seventh meeting of the Sub-committee for the Eradication of Hunger in the Arab Region emanating from the League of Arab States, Eng. Razan Zuayter, chairwoman of the board of directors of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN), offered an intervention through videocall, in which she said that the organization takes pride in the fact that the Sub-committee for the Eradication of Hunger was the first to ring a warning bell while admonishing of the root causes of the lack of food security, which has rendered us in the region to be the most affected by crises such as the Corona pandemic and the war on the Ukraine.
Zuayter stated that among the foremost root causes of the lack of food security is not harnessing 70% of our arable land, while our water is wasted and we do not have suitable water management, whilst rainfed agriculture is neglected, in addition to the impact of conflicts and internecine wars as well as occupation which hinders the provision of food to millions of people. FAO has alluded to the rise in the rate of hunger to 91% as a result of wars, and Zuayter lauded the Organization for holding its last conference in Baghdad to generate recommendations that may resolve the crisis.
The chairman of the board of directors of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) called for convening a meeting of experts not for purposes of analysis but to submit recommendations and clear options to the ministers and policymakers. She emphasized that the recommendations have not changed and are both old and new and are in need of a genuine decision to consider the agricultural sector a strategic priority, and to involve civil society organizations to lay down plans and to generate mechanisms that are amenable to implementation, and to promote the planting of wheat and establish a regional fund to support the main staple crops such as wheat, barley and otherwise, in addition to develop early warning systems particular to the subject of food security, and to buttress food reserves.
Zuayter emphasized the importance of applying good governance for administering lands and water, coupled with the necessity of Arab economic integration through promoting internecine and integrated trade, and she highlighted the importance of putting an end to wars, occupation and settler colonialism.