While ensuring food supplies to vulnerable countries remains stable and secure, Gulf states, including the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, on Friday outlined plans to transform and reinforce their food systems.

Speaking on the second and final day of the UN’s Food Systems Summit 2021, attended by Arab News, world leaders, high-ranking politicians and other representatives of the international community outlined their plans to build resilience into existing food-delivery systems and to reimagine global food security in the era of COVID-19 and climate change.

Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, the UAE’s minister of state for food and water security, told delegates: “The magnitude of the task that faces the global community in meeting (the UN’s second Sustainable Development Goal of) zero hunger by 2030 is clearly huge. There is no time to talk, we have to act and act now.”

According to the UN, the Food Systems Summit was “a catalytic moment for public mobilization and actionable commitments by heads of state and government” to “empower all people to leverage the power of food systems to drive our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and get us back on track to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.”

In addition to specific aims such as eliminating hunger and poverty, the overarching objective of the SDGs is to ensure that development does not come at the expense of the environment.