The Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) has proposed to the United Nations the creation of an "international coalition" for the promotion of sustainable territorial food systems, the cooperation director of the Lusophone community told Lusa.

According to Manuel Lapão, the CPLP, which did not have a direct intervention at the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which began Thursday in New York and ended Friday in the context of the 76th UN General Assembly, proposed to the UN secretariat "the creation of an international coalition to promote sustainable territorial food systems.

According to the Director of Cooperation, the CPLP "intends this coalition to be of all member states and all organizations and development partners that wish to actively participate in strengthening territorial governance and promoting sustainable territorial food systems."

Manuel Lapão said that if this coalition is supported by the United Nations, "the CPLP intends to participate in its construction, in a broad partnership of stakeholders and continue to share its experience with other territories and countries.

The proposal presented by the organization has to do with the fact that this community understands that the construction of this architecture should be politically led and supported by governments, which are responsible for the formulation and implementation of public policies to transform food systems in the framework of the progressive realization of the human right to adequate food, it explained.

Although the organization did not intervene in the summit, several member states, such as Portugal, Angola, Brazil, East Timor, Mozambique, and Equatorial Guinea were scheduled to participate.

Manuela Lapão recalled that the CPLP has developed different moments of technical and political consultation for the consensus of a community vision in building a multi-level, multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral architecture for the governance of the food system, which is being implemented under the Food and Nutrition Security Strategy of (ESAN-CPLP), approved in 2011, by the XVI Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the CPLP.

This path has been made possible by the strengthening that the CPLP has promoted of its ESAN-CPLP governance mechanism, namely within the framework of the Food and Nutritional Security Council of the CPLP (CONSAN-CPLP) which, with the participation of all the relevant actors that make up this structure (representatives of the States civil society, academia, parliaments and the private sector), has adopted a multidisciplinary and coherent approach in the analysis and formulation of proposals for the development of public policies related to the consolidation of greater resilience and sustainability of food systems in the CPLP, he explained.

In preparation for the UNFSS, the CPLP held the III Ordinary Meeting of the CPLP Council on Food Security and Nutrition (CONSAN-CPLP) and approved its recommendations at the XIII Conference of CPLP Heads of State and Government, held in Luanda on July 17, 2021.

Thus, as a way to give greater visibility to the action of the Community in a key sector for sustainable development in Member States and, in order to strengthen the participation of the CPLP in UNFSS and the potential to expand the range of partnerships of the Organization, "it was considered relevant that the Member States of the CPLP that will participate in UNFSS, in their respective areas of national intervention, could also disclose information on the progress achieved in the area of community consultation on the subject," he said. Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste are the nine member states of the CPLP, which this year celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Lusa Agency