UN launches contest for start-ups transforming food systems

NAIROBI, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The UN Food Systems Summit on Thursday launched a competition to help identify small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are delivering innovations to help feed communities.

The UN Food Systems Summit said the contest dubbed "Best Small Business: Good Food for All" will select 50 start-ups that have pioneered innovations to help eradicate global hunger. The competition will run from April 29 to June 4.

"All around the world, leaders need to pay attention to the hidden contribution of the smaller businesses that are nourishing communities, creating jobs and regenerating nature," Agnes Kalibata, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the 2021 Food Systems Summit, said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

Kalibata said the competition will help showcase cutting-edge innovations that small businesses have adopted to boost food and nutrition security among marginalized communities.

"In line with the Summit that is open to people everywhere and leaving no one behind, we encourage such enterprises to raise their voices and help us understand what support they need in order to flourish," said Kalibata.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will in September convene the Food Systems Summit to help raise awareness on the centrality of well-fed societies to achieve sustainable development and boost climate resilience.

The summit is expected to endorse an ambitious roadmap to transform food systems and deliver progress on all the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Small businesses that have been promoting resilient and sustainable food production systems to help tackle hunger and malnutrition will be recognized at the summit.

Applicants for the competition include producer cooperatives, digital start-ups, and agro-dealers that have been at the forefront of improving food security.

The summit said the competition will uncover not only the small businesses leading the charge for more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems but also ways in which they can be supported to scale up their trade sustainably.