Speaking at a General Assembly event on the global food crisis, the deputy secretary-general predicted that 50 million people will be severely undernourished this year. The following are Amina Mohammed's prepared statements for today's special high-level General Assembly event, Time to Act Together: Coordinating Policy Responses to the Global Food Crisis, in New York:

Speaking at a General Assembly event on the global food crisis, the deputy secretary-general predicted that 50 million people will be severely undernourished this year.

I want to thank you all for today's lively conversation. I applaud the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and the President of the General Assembly for arranging this high-level discussion to maintain a laser-like focus on collaborating on priority initiatives to alleviate the present food crisis.

We learned the most recent information about the severity of the crisis today. The COVID-19 epidemic, climatic shocks, and wars, especially the continuing war in Ukraine, have combined to exacerbate already difficult problems with food security around the world.

The State of Food and Nutrition in the World 2022 (SOFI) report, which was just released, served as a sobering reminder that the number of men, women, and children who are hungry is continuing to climb, with 823 million people experiencing hunger in 2021. The World Food Programme (WFP) projects that 50 million more people would experience acute hunger by 2022. To address this degree of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, immediate concerted action is needed.

We learned about the measures proposed by the international community and the reactions of the impacted nations and communities. The United Nations system and the Secretary-Global General's Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy, and Finance are addressing the urgent needs of the world's most vulnerable communities. This includes allocating over $23 million through the Collaborative Sustainable Development Goals Fund for 87 joint programmes across 100 countries, the majority of which are aimed at solving the food security challenge.

Meanwhile, we must also cast a wider net to find the routes that will lead to more durable, sustainable food systems. The Secretary-organized General's summit on the United Nations food systems in 2021 is a good opportunity to coordinate these projects and assist national paths and action areas.

With only eight years left in the 2030 Agenda, it is imperative that resilient food systems produce enough food that is safe, affordable, nutritious, and part of healthy diets for everyone. They also need to provide jobs and pay living wages while protecting the environment.

Representative [Gabriel] Ferrero, I'm happy that this conversation will continue at CFS 50 in October. I'm confident that its members and attendees will continue to promote coordinated policy responses on food security and nutrition using its inclusive, science-backed platform and its extremely pertinent reports and policy agreements.

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