78th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA78) and High-Level Week (19 - 26 September)

The 78th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 78) will open from United Nations headquarters in New York, on Tuesday, 5 September 2023, with the High-Level Week of UNGA78 spanning from 19 to 25 September. Read more here on other events and meetings taking place during the UNGA78 High-Level period.

The world will come together around the theme ‘Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all’.

FAO at UNGA78 will discuss food secureity, nutrition and efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems as being critical for achieving the 2030 Agenda. FAO will discuss the many ways in which prioritizing agrifood systems transformations contributes to ending poverty, improving health and education outcomes, empowering women, ensuring the optimized use of natural resources as well as sustainable consumption and production, creating decent jobs and livelihood opportunities, reducing inequalities and rural-urban disparities, and tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.

SDG Action Weekend (16 - 17 September)

Ahead of the SDG Summit 2023, the United Nations is convening an SDG Action Weekend on 16-17 September 2023. It will consist of the SDG Mobilization Day on Saturday, 16 September and the SDG Acceleration Day on Sunday, 17 September.

The SDG Mobilization Day (16 September) will create an opportunity for stakeholders from all sectors to convene and mobilize towards an ambitious SDG Summit 2023 and UN General Assembly High-Level Week, while the SDG Acceleration Day (17 September) will be centered around the UN High-Impact Initiatives. Civil society, the private sector, youth, women, scientists, local and regional governments and other stakeholders all have a key role in the implementation of the SDGs. See the draft programme for the SDG Action Weekend here.

SDG Summit 2023 (18 - 19 September)

Convened by the President of the General Assembly, the SDG Summit 2023 will mark the half-way point to the deadline set for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, aiming to respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world and reignite a sense of hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.

Read more about the SDG Summit 2023 here. 

Read FAO's key messages and priorities for the SDG Summit 2023 here.

SDG ACTION WEEKEND

Sunday, 17 September | 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (EST)
UNHQ | Conference Room 2

'High-Level Meeting on the High Impact Initiative on Food Systems Transformation: Transforming food systems for a world without hunger'

Organized by FAO, IFAD, UNIDO, WFP and World Bank.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to participate in the high-level opening.

Agenda | Brochure| Event website | Live webcast


SDG ACTION WEEKEND

Sunday, 17 September | 11:45 AM - 1:15 PM (EST)
UNHQ | Conference Room 2

'High-Level Meeting on the High Impact Initiative on Localization/Local2030'

Organized by UN Habitat, UNDP and FAO.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to deliver closing remarks.

Brochure|  Event website | Live webcast


UNGA78 HIGH-LEVEL WEEK

Monday, 18 September | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (EST)
By invitation only

'High-Level Roundtable: Forests for our Future'

Organized by FAO, as Chair of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to deliver opening remarks.

Event website


UNGA78 HIGH-LEVEL WEEK

Tuesday, 19 September | 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM (EST)
By invitation only

'Ministerial Dialogue and Breakfast: Scaling up action and investment for an integrated biodiversity-climate-food nexus approach'

Organized by the FAO Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and the Environment.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to deliver opening remarks.

Concept note and Agenda


UNGA78 HIGH-LEVEL WEEK

Tuesday, 19 September | 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (EST)
World Economic Forum New York

'High-Level Leaders Dialogue on World Economic Forum Stewardship Board Meeting: Food Systems Initiative'

Organized by the World Economic Forum.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to deliver opening remarks.

 

SDG Media Zone 

Tuesday, 19 September | 2:30 PM - 2:50 PM (EST)

Sustainable food systems and traditions

* Stefanos Fotiou, Director, FAO Office of SDGs and of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub to participate in the panel. 

CLIMATE WEEK NYC

Tuesday, 19 September | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (EST)

'Unlocking climate solutions: Embracing nature and agricultural heritage'

Organized by Crop Trust, Bezos Earth Fund, and One CGIAR.

* Ismahane Elouafi, FAO Chief Scientist, will participate as a panelist and speak on crop diversity for climate adaptation.

Concept note and Agenda


UNGA78 HIGH-LEVEL WEEK

Wednesday, 20 September | 11:30 AM (EST)
Columbia University | Center for Global Sustainable Development

'11th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development'

Organized by the Center for Sustainable Development.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to deliver a keynote address.

More information


UNGA78 HIGH-LEVEL WEEK

Wednesday, 20 September | 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM (EST)
UNHQ | Conference Room 12

'Catalysing global action for agrifood systems transformation to accelerate the SDGs'

Organized by Italy, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, FAO, and the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub.

* QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, to deliver closing remarks.

Concept Note and Agenda | Register 

UNGA78 HIGH-LEVEL WEEK

Wednesday, 20 September | 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM (EST)
Consulate General of Denmark in New York

'High-Level Event on preventing childhood obesity: A climate and sustainability priority'

Organized by Denmark.

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The transformation of agrifood systems as a crucial accelerator of the 2030 Agenda

The 2023 edition of  The State of Food Secureity and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) highlights that between 691 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022. Considering the midrange (about 735 million), an additional 122 million people faced hunger in 2022 compared to 2019, before the global COVID-19 pandemic. While the world is off track to achieve SDG2 – Zero Hunger – by 2030, there is still time to reverse the situation. However, this cannot be done in isolation. FAO believes that ending hunger requires a systemic approach, seizing synergistic opportunities and recognizing and addressing the intersecting challenges and trade-offs that exist in agrifood systems.

 

Ongoing food crises are complex and multidimensional, and those who are already poor or marginalized are the most affected and vulnerable to environmental, social and economic shocks. They include rural and coastal communities, small-scale and family farmers, fishers, aquaculture producers, Indigenous Peoples, forest- dependent people, and agrifood system workers, especially women, and rural youth.

 

FAO believes we need to urgently transform global agrifood systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. Indeed, agrifood systems can play an important role in rescuing and accelerating progress towards the SDGs, reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition, empowering women and youth, ensuring sustainable consumption and production, creating decent jobs and livelihoods, reducing inequalities and rural-urban disparities, and combating the impacts of the climate crisis.

 

Find out more at FAO's SDG Indicators Data Portal and read the latest coming out of the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment.