BUJUMBURA June 30th (ABP) – The Director of staff of the Prime Minister, Ir. Déo Bède Mpfubusa, represented the Prime Minister on Tuesday June 29 in Bujumbura, at the official launch of national consultations on food systems as part of the preparation of Burundi to participate in the World Food Systems Summit.
The senior executives of the Office of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, parliamentarians, executives of public and private institutions, representatives of agencies of the United Nations system and international organizations, as well as the strategic partners of the government of Burundi took part in that activity.
Mr. Mpfubusa first recalled that food systems concern all the actors and all the processes involved in agriculture, livestock and other forms of food production until their consumption as well as waste management. He also added that food systems encompass cultivation, harvesting, processing, packaging, distribution, storage, marketing, consumption and waste disposal, explaining that it is from farm to fork, barn to table, including waste management system.
He indicated that this official launch of national consultations aims to mobilize all stakeholders of the Burundian food systems to contribute, in an effective manner, to the reflections on policies and high-impact interventions to draw up national pathways towards healthy, sustainable, nutritional and resilient food systems so that Burundi can achieve national and international goals (SDGs), through effective monitoring and evaluation.
He also pointed out that the United Nations system is organizing, in September 2021, a summit on food systems under the theme: “the transformation of food systems is essential to achieve all the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the aim to launch bold new actions aimed at transforming the way the world produces and consumes food in order to progress towards the 17 SDGs. According to him, that summit comes at the right time, and the government of Burundi is delighted with the chosen theme.
In his speech, the resident coordinator of the United Nations system, Mr. Richmond Tiemoko, said that the September summit under preparation is intended to awaken the global public to work to change the way we produce and consume. It will be a people’s summit and also a summit that brings solutions. It will be the opportunity to call on everyone to take action to transform global food systems, he said.
Regarding the establishment of a coordination structure for consultations by the government of Burundi, Mr. Tiemoko promised that the United Nations system in Burundi reaffirms its commitment to make its expertise and budget support available for the proper implementation of that important initiative for the country and the entire planet.