At the invitation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Security Committee (CFS), with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Prof. Li Xiande, Sun Zhilu (assistant researcher) from the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), attended the 45th session of the CFS held at FAO headquarters in Italy from October 15^th to October 19^th, 2018.

The Conference focused on making a difference in food security and nutrition, concentrated on issues from the presentations, reports and details shown on the conference as followings: the presentation of the State of Food Security, the report on Nutrition in the World 2018 and the State of Food and Agriculture 2018, CFS evaluation-implementation of the response, critical and emerging issues for food security and nutrition, updates and decisions of CFS work stream, global thematic event on the Right to Food Guidelines, the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security, Nutrition (HLPE) report on multi-stakeholder partnerships to finance and improve food security and nutrition in the framework of the 2030 Agenda, good practices and lesson sharing etc. CFS’ 128 Member States, 13 agencies and bodies of the United Nations, 142 civil society organizations, 6 international agricultural research organizations, 2 international and regional financial institutions, 101 private sector associations and private philanthropic foundations, and 74 observers attended the meeting. At the side event “Promoting Sustainable Food Systems to Achieve Zero Hunger”, entrusted by the chairman of the HLPE, Prof. Li Xiande introduced the main content of multi-stakeholder partnerships to finance and improve food security and nutrition in the framework of the 2030 Agenda Report issued by the HLPE in 2018.

Our delegation expressed deep concerns at the discovery of the increase in the number of global hunger in 2016 based on the report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018, and suggested that the international community needs to work together to actively take effective actions and build a more equitable, just and open international food trade order as soon as possible to promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. At the same time, we also actively participated in the topics of “critical and emerging issues for food security and nutrition”, “endorsement of the terms of reference for policy guidance on food systems and nutrition”, “good practices and lesson sharing”, “CFS evaluation-implementation of the response” , etc.

The CFS secretariat is located in FAO which is a global forum with core funding support from FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Program (WFP). The organization is responsible for reviewing food security policies. The CFS holds a plenary meeting in Rome in October each year with its vision to become the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform so that all stakeholders can work together in a coordinated manner to ensure food security and nutrition for all human beings.

Prof. Li Xiande was appointed by the Bureau of the CFS to serve as a member of the Steering Committee of the HLPE, starting from October 13th, 2017 until the closure of the CFS 46 Plenary (2019). His research focuses mainly on food security, land management and trade issues. Prof. Li has been long involved in the food and agricultural policy formulation process, in particular, as a government delegate in the negotiation and consultation of two international instruments (the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT-CFS) and the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI-CFS)).