Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security - Action Dome, UNCCD COP17

Good morning, everybody. We'll start in a minute. Please take your seat. We just have 60 minutes. That's the best time. Please take your seat, please. Swansea distinguished guests, colleagues and friends. a lot of friends familiar faces some people we met they have you know 2024 thank you very much for attending this very important session I will come you to this session the global Flagship initiative here and the food system and soil health day let's begin with one simple truth food security started with healthy land and healthy soil. That's the beginning. Healthy soil supports productive agriculture, as all of you know. They provide nutritious food, as well as they help build healthier, more resilient community, because we care about people. If the food is not healthy, that means we are not going to be healthy. This is why the food security cannot be separated from land restoration, climate resilience, biodiversity, and human health. When we launched the initiative in COP16 in Riyadh as part of Riyadh agenda, We brought together government, development institute, scientists, civil society, and private sector. Our aim was addressed the challenge together. That's our aim, talking together and challenge the address together. Today at the COP17, we take the next step from commitment of course, to implementation. Since Riyadh, the initiative has grown to more than 150 members worldwide. That is important, but numbers alone are not enough. Our success will be measured by what we deliver on the ground. healthier soil, more resilient food system, better nutrition, and better outcome to the people. So our focus today is clear. Strong governance, that's very important. Clear priority. investment, and effective partnership. It is now my pleasure to invite His Excellency Markus to deliver the speech, the opening remark on behalf of Her Excellency Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Executive Secretary of UNCCD and a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Flagship Initiative to deliver the opening remark.

Thank you so much, Dr. Nasser. I am here on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Dr. Jasmine Fouad. As you can imagine, we are in the last leg of the negotiations. and she is personally following most of them. So unfortunately, she cannot be here with all the friends that are in this room. So I'm a humble representative of her. Good morning, distinguished colleagues, partners and friends. It is a privilege to open this session today here in the beautiful city of Ulaanbaatar, at the heart of COP17, to mark a pivotal moment for the global flagship initiative of food security. In 2024 at COP16 in Riyadh, we came together to launch the global flagship initiative on food security together with partners with the Global Land Initiative. Today, I am delighted to announce that we have now signed a long term partnership agreement between the UNCCD and the Crop Trust, a partnership that support The work of the Secretariat in this initiative, which is based with our neighbors in Bonn of the Crop Trust. This is not a simple administrative step. It is a statement of intent. It signals that together we are ready to move from commitment to delivery, the scale and with the urgency that the challenges before us demand. Agriculture depends on soil, livelihoods depend on productive landscapes, Entire communities depend on the resilience of the ecosystem that sustains them. Today, more than 3 billion people depend on land that is being already degraded. Agricultural productivity is declining. Soils are being lost. Water is becoming scarcer. And as land degrades, so does the ability of millions of farmers, pastoralists and rural families to feed themselves and their communities. This is precisely what this is initiative is designed to do. It bridges the three Rio conventions. The UNCCD, CBD and climate change by recognizing that food systems transformation is the practical entry point through which we can simultaneously advance in land restoration, biodiversity and climate resilience. The initiative is already building real world implementation pathways. Today, you will hear about the global initiative on livestock, rangelands and pastoral systems, recognizing that pastoral communities are among the most vulnerable yet most knowledgeable stewards of drylands landscape. And we cannot do this alone. We need the best science, we need the best practitioners, and we need them to work together. That is why the Scientific Advisory Committee is so essential to this initiative. It ensures that all programs are grounded on rigorous evidence that we learn from what works and that we adapt as conditions change. We are building a global knowledge network that connects researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across the world. Now, let's look at the way forward. The targets we have set reflect the ambitions, engaging that at least 40 national governments contributing to the improvement management of more than 100 hectares of agricultural land, supporting more than 120 million farmers and mobilizing over 10 billion in investment. But we cannot achieve these goals alone. We need the governments to align their national strategies. We need the development financial institutions to scale up investment. And we need each one of you as members of the global community to engage with our emerging innovation pipeline. and identify opportunities. On behalf of the Executive Secretary, we would like to invite you to join us, partners with us, invest in this initiative because when we restore land, we restore hope. When we strengthen food systems, we strengthen communities. And when we work together, we build a future where no one goes hungry and where land that sustains us is sustained in return. Thank you so much for your attention.

Thank you very much, Your Excellency. Your remarks have been the connection clear. They made the connection clear. Food security land restoration, climate resilience, biodiversity are all part of the same agenda. We are now to the important milestone. Talk about the agreement between UNCCD and Crop Trust. That's because of the good governance. And this agreement is between the Global Flagship Initiative and the Global Land Initiative by G20. they're working together. So, and this is very important, and this is more than a partnership agreement. It is a practical step from coalition building to implementation. And this is very important issue to coordinate, not just among the COP, it's go among the initiative itself. Look at that now, Lincoln, whatever we do here with other three cups and go beyond this with the United Nation and G20. And this is, I would say, the president of Saudi Arabia and UNCCD should take a credit of that one. To speak about the significance of this partnership, I am pleased to invite his Excellency, the co-chair, of the Global Flagship Initiative. Dr. Stephen, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much for this kind introduction, dear colleagues and friends. Happy to be here together with you. As it's already been mentioned that Now, it's a great moment. We just signed this partnership with the G20 Global Land Initiative. And this partnership with the G20 Global Land Initiative gives the flagship initiative, not only a stable operational framework, but also a shared outcome agenda, a shared vision for turning ambition into action. Now we are able to move from commitment to action with the flagship initiative. And I'm absolutely glad to be part of that. I'm represented, I'm representing the Global Crop Diversity Trust, or Crop Trust for short. We now hosting the secretariat of this flagship initiative. And what can we bring in? Yeah, we are a well-known international organization with a global mandate. well experienced in implementing large projects with strong governance, strong financial mechanisms. We are managing more than 400 million US dollars. And what can we now bring into the flagship? The flagship is about transforming food systems towards stronger food security, more resilient food systems and reduction of environmental impacts of food systems. And the flagship will do it with two things. Two things make it unique. The one is bringing in the private sector. Without private sector involvement, we cannot achieve the goals. And the other unique thing is we will apply land based approaches. So better food security. through private sector involvement and land-based approaches. So with regional water management, soil management, land approaches and the like, that will be the key to make sure that smallholder farmers get access to markets, to knowledge, to markets, to knowledge, to capital and to a more conducive environment. We will do our best to be a strong partner in this and we are looking forward to do this together with as many partners around the world as possible. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you, Doctor, for this clarity. This partnership give us a strong foundation for the initiative next phase. Now, come to the key question. How can we take partnership into implementation and implementation into a measurable result? The answer required four things. Clear governance. The initiative doesn't spend a lot of things to clear the green, the clear governance from the beginning, but being partner with UNCCD and CRB Trust, they use in the existing, you know, good governance. Focus on priority, priority for all together, all comes to G20, measurable targets and practical pathway to deliver. And this is what we will need to do. To present the initiative structure, I am pleased to invite Dr. Conrad, Secretary of the Global Flagship Initiative. Conrad, floor is yours. Thank you.

So very good morning everybody. Very pleased to be here. We have come a long way in the last two years. The flagship, as Dr. Al Khadani has said, has become a global platform bringing governments, institutions and communities together around the shared commitment to food security and to work to connect funding, implementing partners and technical expertise. Next slide, please. More than 140 members have joined the initiative. We are growing quite quickly. That includes United Nations partners, governments, the private sector, development banks, NGOs, research centers, regional and international organizations, and some of them you can see on this slide. The next slide, please. The flagship was launched at UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh in December 2024, and the founding members at that time included the University of Chicago, AG Fund, BDA, Islamic Development Bank, and OPEC Fund. In early 2025, we established a secretariat at the COP Trust headquarters in Bonn, Germany, and the first funded projects were launched in Ethiopia and Nigeria. In mid-2025, the first members meeting where the initiative strategy was adopted. There was also later that year in Addis Ababa by the Food System Summit, the ECAD Secretariat, and we are very happy that his Excellency, the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECAD is with us today, adopted the ministerial community on the flagship committed to strengthening food security. And the flagship also received the public endorsement of her Excellency, the UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohamed three times last year in late 2025. There was strong political and institutional endorsement and we established a scientific advisory committee as well as dedicated work streams on youth and civil society. And this year so far, we have made significant progress in Cameroon. We will hear about this later, including bringing on board the United Nations Resident Coordinator. His Excellency is also among us today. Very happy to have you here with us. And the membership has grown to more than 140 members, making the flagship one of the largest coalitions working on SDG2 around the world. And the agreement between the Global End Initiative and the Crop Trust was signed earlier this summer, really marking the operational phase of the flagship. And overall, the flagship is now supporting around 20 projects. Next slide, please. The next slide, please. The initiative is working across three pillars, collaborating broadly to bring governments, institutions and communities together around the shared food security goal, mobilizing the private sector to unlock capital and expertise and delivering impact with agility, moving quickly on solutions that respond to needs on the ground. Next slide, please. We are very happy to present the governance structure of the flagship initiative, which consists of the membership assembly, bringing together all members, working groups dedicated to advancing knowledge on specific issues, a steering committee that provides strategic leadership, a scientific advisory committee providing scientific and technical advice, and the secretariat that coordinates management and implementation. We are grateful for the steering committee's continued engagement and we look to the continued leadership of her Excellency Dr. Yasmeen and his Excellency Dr. Osama in particular to help us bring the resources necessary into place. Next slide please. The initiative is gaining momentum. Each of these moments reflects the flagship's deepening ties with governments, development finance institutions, the private sector and other partners worldwide. Next slide please. We are also these KPIs are the key example of how concrete we are in our shared outcome agenda for turning ambition into action. Developing program and investment pipelines in priority countries and regions, launching cost proposals on innovative solutions and selecting projects to receive funding, developing regional initiatives supporting sustainable agriculture and land restoration, developing and operationalizing the global initiative on livestock, range lands and pastoralist systems, developing various knowledge products and technical guidance. and we hope to implement capacity building initiatives, but we are still looking for donors to step up to fund for this. We also have major leads such as with the African Development Bank. We are working on the fast fund setting that one up and with the European Commission we are working on revitalizing the agricultural sector in Syria. Next slide please. We can already share some early successes and ongoing initiatives. One we will discuss later today, which is the Cameroon convergence model and country replication framework supported by the Islamic Development Bank and the United Nations resident coordinator. It has become a leading implementation model for the flagship. Following the ministerial meeting and communique on food security and opportunities in the IGAD region, the Arab Coordination Group earmarked significant funding to support food security initiatives in the IGAD countries. With the European Union and the UN Resident Coordinator on Syria, we envisage implementing the NAMA project on revitalizing the Syrian agricultural sector, the Global Initiative on Livestock Rangelands and Pastoral Systems, is progressing through the livestock working group which developed the concept brief on private sector investment in livestock value chains for food security in Africa our scientific advisory committee has almost completed the draft food security white paper and the youth work stream has held two major consultations to develop statements on expectations and recommendations for cop 17 and on this on this week cops this year the next slide please So, the flagship's next major convening will be its annual members meeting, which will be held in New York back-to-back the high level week of the UN General Assembly on 21st of September. And our members and partners are all very warmly invited and, This again is also an invitation for all of you to engage with the initiative, which has indeed become a global movement on food security, SDG2, in its interrelatedness with land, water, climate, health and other SDGs, whereas through partnership funding and technical expertise, we can achieve a lot by joining forces. And with that, we can go back to the first slide and I'm Very happy to and proud to invite the panelists on stage. His Excellency Dr. Osama, Steering Committee member in UNCCD COP16 Presidency. His Excellency Mr. Yambal Tseren, State Secretary of Food Security and Agriculture of Mongolia. His Excellency Philip Nugent, Director General of the Irish International and Marine Affairs Department and European Union Presidency. Dr. Nisar Said, Manager, Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development, Islamic Development Bank. Professor Shenqin Fan, member of our Scientific Advisory Committee and His Excellency Dr. Issa Sanogo, United Nations Resident Coordinator on Cameroons. Please. So if I may, I would like to start with His Excellency Dr. Osama. How do you see the initiative contributing to UNCCDs wider agenda in the years ahead, particularly as it moves from launch to implementation?

Thank you very much, Dr. Conrad. Significantly, I think it will contribute significantly to the objective of the UNCCD convention. Agriculture is an extremely important component of terrestrial ecosystem. The convention is the convention of land to prevent land Integration application. So, I think. By working. The culture. When multiple objective, we have seen the report. That there is almost a 1,000,000 hectares. Agriculture and that's the graded by if you all, uh, and we, we know that. drought impacts agriculture communities disproportionately. 80% of the drought impacts are on agriculture communities. So really, you will strengthen these communities, you will strengthen the drought resilience, which is another extreme objective, important objective for the convention. And of course, you will have huge impact on food security, the social well-being, of millions and millions of people. Again, we have more than 600 million smallholder farmers that owns two hectares of less of land. So I see the positioning of the initiative is extremely strategic and aligned with the objective of the convention. Also, the important milestone of this agreement the global flagship initiative and the G20 global land initiative that is administered by UNCCD is also very important because there is a lot of alignment between the G20 global land initiative and the flagship initiative in terms of land conservation, land restoration. So we also believe that the flagship initiative will contribute to restoring degraded land. and conserving existing land, enabling farmers, leverage innovation to enhance the productivity of the farming communities, knowledge sharing, capacity building to the farming communities in developing countries, which is a main focus also of the Riyadh Partnership on drought resilience. So there is multiple benefit from the flagship initiative. We believe that it is very well positioned to partner with UNCCD, with the G20 Global Land Initiative, with Riyadh Partnership on Drought Resilience, and it couldn't come at a more needed time. So I think there is acute need for this initiative. There is a lot of the resources that are needed. The initiative will intervene, of course, mobilizing financial support, also a key objective of the initiative, and that is needed especially for developing countries and especially for farming communities who still face difficulties in attracting financial flow. So I think I congratulate you the flagship initiative. I reiterate our thanks for crop trust for launching this, you know, pioneering much needed global initiative and for you and see the support and for the G20 global launch support and for the all the 140 partners that have joined and. This is a whole world issue. We need all to work collectively. There is no single entity or country or initiative that can solve these challenges alone or address it alone. So we need to act collectively. And I think one important point for the flagship initiative, it is a catalyst for collaboration because you are bringing countries, you are bringing technical institution, international organization, financial institution to really pull resources and, you know, channel it to the most vulnerable farming community in developing countries. So I salute you for this great work and we are very proud partner of the flagship initiative. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Your Excellency. My next question goes to Your Excellency, Mr. Choij, Director General of Livestock Policy and Implementation in Mongolia. What lessons from Mongolia's experience with food and agricultural systems might be relevant to the initiatives work in other countries?

Please, go ahead.

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Next, I would like to give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Philip Nathan from Ireland and also proudly holding the presidency of the European Union. How can the European Union be brought in as a co-funding partner? What opportunities do you see for the European Union to try as a co-funding partner in the flagship initiatives program of work?

Thank you. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, thank you for the invitation to participate today. It's a privilege to be part of such a distinguished panel. I want to welcome on behalf of Ireland the work of the flagship. We're a longstanding champion in Ireland of global efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition. 160 years ago, actually 180 years ago or thereabouts, Ireland suffered a devastating famine that reduced the population of the island of Ireland by about 25% through around 1 million deaths and around 1 million people emigrating from Ireland, many of them to the United States. So hunger and malnutrition are etched into the history of our country. And for that reason, We place a high premium on food security and nutrition as being fundamental to the achievement of peace and stability, for economic development, and for the elimination of extreme poverty, and also as a way of tackling a key driver of migration. So we're using the opportunity of Ireland's presidency of the EU to highlight the need for continued collective action on this issue. And our broader work on agriculture and food systems transformation is aimed at supporting a really comprehensive change in food production, in food processing, in distribution and consumption. And the focus here is on healthy diets, environmental sustainability, climate resilience and inclusive economic growth. And we deliver those through multiple partners, including the Rome-based agencies of the United Nations, the FAO, the WFP and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. We're also really pleased to be a supporter of the Crop Trust, having supported the establishment of the Power of Diversity funding facility, which is focused on the promotion and adoption of opportunity crops in multiple countries, including Colombia, India, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. And this year we'll also see the start of the implementation of Ireland's Nutrition for Growth commitment to provide 250 million annually over four years to address hunger and malnutrition. And it was really welcome to see the importance that's attached in the initiative to private finance. We strongly believe that food security, land degradation, migration and poverty can only be effectively addressed through a whole of society approach that uses innovative methods and powers communities. And on that basis, we feel that in Ireland and the EU, we are well aligned with the three pillars of your global initiative, including on the important role, as Emma mentioned, for the private sector in addressing the challenge. And finally, our history teaches us well the dehumanizing effects of hunger and food security. So we remain committed to working towards a world in which no one goes hungry and nor do they have a fear of going hungry. Thank you.

Thank you very much. That's extremely encouraging. And we also from the flagship side look very much forward towards engaging with the Irish EU presidency. And next I would like to give the floor to Dr. Nisar from the Islamic Development Bank. The Islamic Development Bank's support for the Cameroon convergence model has made it one of the initiatives leading examples of coordinated investment. How can we replicate this elsewhere? Please.

Hello. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Kourrat, for the question. And maybe before answering your question, I would like to ask ourselves, what does it mean convergence? First of all, we have to define what is convergence. Actually, Convergence is about bringing in priorities that are often pursued separately, food security, agriculture, climate, into a common country-led framework, actually, for planning, financing and delivery. And it's not necessarily about, we're not talking here about creating new institutions, actually. but just working with the existing institutions, making them work together actually for a convergence objective. And of course, the benefits here are well known to everyone. Actually, it will reduce fragmentation, actually improve coordination and also optimize costs in places where resources are really scarce. So that's very, very important. And also this will help create clearer pathway from national priorities to programs and investments, et cetera. And I think the case of Cameroon illustrates this very, very well. It started with a small amount seed money, $2 million actually provided from the SDG fund basically. And it is now being used to catalyze resources, to mobilize resources up to $15 million and even it could go up to $30 million. So that's the first part actually about the convergence model. And what do we take out of this? I mean, how do can we replicate to answer your question, Dr. Conrad, how can we replicate this to other member countries? It's not about actually copy paste, you know, plug and play, you know, use the same model, but rather use the main principles actually, or the modus operandi of Cameroon and try to replicate it, to adapt it actually to different countries. On this, we have identified four general principles. The first one, of course, is the country ownership. It's very, very important. The programs have to be country led from the countries that are, in the case of Cameroon, we had national leadership, importance, credible governing mechanism, the priorities. well defined actually for the government essentially, and we worked around that. This is one. The second general principle I would talk about is the importance of bringing the relevant sectors around clearly identified objectives. For example, we say agriculture, water, climate, nutrition, could be actually, would be under the same platform in Cameroon for partners to work around these objectives. The third one, of course, it's good to have good plans, but we need to transform this into investments. We need to transform this into bankable projects, into, and thinking about all the modalities, how to implement this, how to design this, et cetera, okay? So this is the third principle. And here, of course, it's important to bring in early in advance institutions like us, the Islamic Development Bank or other financial partners, and of course, the private sector, because we can help actually in these elements of bankability, risk allocation, etc. The fourth and the last actually general principle, which we are learning from from from Cameroon is actually to to to you to use the knowledge actually to accelerate replication. And maybe here the flagship could could be playing that role actually, you know, capturing that knowledge and and capturing the general principles and try to to to to play the catalytic catalytic role which Dr. Osama just mentioned in his remarks actually this catalytic role to to to implement such initiatives in different countries. Thank you.

Yeah, really thank you so much. And also from our side, from on behalf of the co-chairs and myself, a huge thank you to the Islamic Development Bank. It's really a pleasure working with you and I hope we can replicate that model in as many countries as possible. Next, let's give the floor to His Excellency Dr. Isa Sanoko, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cameroon, one of our staff. for the flagship, if I may say, what advice would you offer UN country teams in other countries considering a similar model of coordination around food security?

Please. Thank you very much. And your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very happy to be part of this distinguished panel. It's good to speak after Dr. Nizar because Indeed, the main lesson we learned in Cameroon was not necessarily a technical challenge. It was mainly a coordination challenge to start with. And already from how we work, bringing different government institutions together was one challenge. But can I see the deputy minister of environment in the room here? I want to salute him because the joint convergence program that we are talking about is actually looking at all those different aspects. The food security is one, but as you are doing food security, how you address land degradation, making sure that the climate adaptation aspect is taken into account as you are developing the different value chain. Now, by doing that, we needed not only the Minister of Environment, but we needed to also bring in the Minister of Agriculture. Beyond that, we needed to have security around the Minister of Economy, because when it comes to endorsing investments, Dr. Nizar mentioned just now the bankable aspect. You need the Ministry of Economy to make sure that the planning is taken into account. So that's one big chunk of the partnership that you need to build. The second challenge of the coordination is also to have the relevant stakeholders at the table. Within the UN itself, it cannot be done by WFP alone. because WFP is on the market side, but we needed FAO, we needed UNEP, we needed UNCDF on the private sector mobilization side, and we needed UNIDO on the transformation side. That was another aspect of the mobilization part of the coordination. And also the actors themselves. The actors being the private sector, the cooperatives, etc., the women associations, the civil society, etc., etc. So that was a lot of challenge. The second lesson we learned was also, I think he said it, the work cannot be done without having it led by the government. So you need an anchor. And we were lucky enough to have the national development strategy in place with a specific element around the import substitution policy, which was extremely important with clarity around where the value chains of priority were. So we had to build on those value chains and how the government was trying to use it to leverage other sectors such as education was all part of it. So we built on that policy with four value chains. One is cassava, one is rice, one is the poultry, and the other one is the livestock. So those four channels were already with the government, so we build on it. And the third lesson we learned was the catalytic aspect. We bring ideas, but for the government to build or to take it over, you need to show that you are not just coming to beg for money. You have to put something on the table. The joint SDG fund was a catalytic fund of 2 million that could build that model and show to the government that we are bringing something at the table. And that was also very important for the development banks. because you come with a theory of change, but the development bank will always ask you, what are you bringing to the table? Right? So that was very important for the Islamic Development Bank to actually realize, okay, this thing can be very interesting. Now, The partnership globally was also very important because to be able to get the Islamic Development Bank on board, we had the Global Flagship Initiative, which gave us that opportunity in Addis for us to pitch again. The vice minister was with us, two vice ministers, agriculture and environment. We pitched in Addis for the Islamic Development Bank to discover us. So that's strong support, including the support of the UN DSG, Amina Mohamed herself was sort of also a leverage. And I want to thank this partnership because now we are aiming to move from $2 million We have done all the assessment, we have targeted the financial architecture. Now we are working with the Islamic Development Bank to do the feasibility studies and the aim is to move from 2 million to 40 million eventually. And I'll stop there. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. And then as we presented today, we everything we do also goes to our scientific advisory committee and we're very honored to have Professor Shenken Fan, member of our scientific advisory committee with us today. And the question to you, Professor Fan, is how can the initiative best support the translation of research into practical field ready solutions? And how can they convince the private sector to come on board at scale?

Well, thank you, Conrad. First, let me congratulate the flagship for making such a tremendous progress in the last two years. Yeah, I think your presidency, the leadership, the hard work by the secretariat, obviously, our host from the Crop Trust. Now, I'm a part of the scientific advisory committee. So number one is we needed to use research, data, evidence to support the whole program. Demand driven is very critical. Demand driven. You know, we used to live in ivory tower just to research, but today the demand driven, we needed to listen to smallholders, to the private sector, to all of you. What do you need? That demand driven research, demand driven innovation will be so critical. That's number one. So number two is policy. You mentioned about policy. I think policy plays a critical role. bring innovation science into implementation. Here we still see the isolated policies in different ministries. Agriculture is more on food production, health department is usually on nutrition, and then environment on climate change and so on. So we needed to make sure that the policy is designed across different departments. And here as a researcher, we can use our data evidence to drive that cross-sectoral policy making. And obviously governance, I think I have mentioned, I have listened to the previous discussion that governance will be so critical. So my number two comment is the policy. Number three is the private sector. I think Conrad asked me about the private sector. I think in emerging economies, private sector actually facing challenges. One is lack of capacity. They really know what's going on in the world, land degradation or loss of biodiversity. They really don't know. Their objective is to make money. So here, I think to educate, to really improve the capacity of the private sector, to let them know what's going on, because they have to help to deliver. common social objective, then some of the support, how we can support the private sector through, let's say, investment, through loans, through grants, to support the private sector, to increase their investment or to improve their capacity. I think to me, it's so critical right now. And then I think right now we have seen some success already using branded financing, using private public partnership using leverage so the private sector can be leveraged through either the multinational banks or through the government loans. So I wanted to thank you to really focus on food and nutrition security. I have worked on food and nutrition security for the last four decades. I think food and land come together so well. I think particularly Saudi Arabia launched this initiative during the COP16. I really appreciate your support. So let's continue to work on everybody's food and nutrition security. Everybody has access to healthy nutrition food. Meantime, we make sure that our land is protected. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, Professor Fan. And I want to thank really all speakers and panelists and also the participants for joining us today. I mean, really, as you see, this has become a true global movement. And we are again a huge thank you in particular to the leadership of Dr. Yasmin and Dr. Osama, the steering committee and of course our honorable co-chairs. And now let us move forward as we mobilize the resources that are really needed to have the transformative impact on the ground. I would now propose that we take a picture, the speakers together with the co-chairs of course, and then we invite everybody in the room also to join for a group picture. Thank you very much. Now, if everybody can join for the picture, please. Is soon now. We are brothers, son. All right. Bye.