Yesterday morning at the Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebène, the Mauritius Institute of Directors (MIOD) and the British High Commission hosted a networking event with the theme “Climate Change Impacting on Food Security. The objective was to investigate methods for bolstering and effectively countering the adaptation processes used in Mauritius to maintain food security. The MIOD’s electronic membership card was introduced at the time.
The event saw the participation of several high-profile figures including Honourable, Maneesh Gobin, Minister of Agro and Food Security, H.E Charlotte Pierre, British High Commissioner to Mauritius, Oliver Orton, Corporate Governance Lead from the International Finance Corporation, Ben Gaffney, Sustainability Financial Institutions Specialist from the International Financial Corporation and Sheila Ujoodha, Chief Executive Officer of the Mauritius Institute of Directors. The event also convened a panel where Dhiren Poonoosamy, Chief Executive Officer, Medine Group Ltd, Medha Gunputh, Senior Chief Executive from the Ministry of Agro Industry and Food Security, Jacqueline Sauzier, General Secretary, Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture and Rebecca Espitalier-Noel, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Foodwise, explored avenues for this sector to respond and adapt to climate change.
In her address, the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Mauritius, Ms. Charlotte Pierre, underlined that climate change is by far the biggest challenge facing humanity in all of modern history. She pointed out that the UK Government is proud to collaborate with the MIOD and the Mauritian authorities to find new ways to rethink and transform agriculture and food systems, at home and across borders. She also emphasised that the economics of the global food security challenge involves the need to feed 9 billion people by 2050. It is therefore our duty to invest in and support innovative and sustainable strategies for food production and to tackle food waste, stressed Ms. Charlotte Pierre.
Furthermore, the British High Commissioner dwelt on the range of support provided to Mauritius to catalyse actions to address climate change related issues, namely: Mauritius has joined the Task Force on Access to Climate Finance ; Experts from the Southern African Development Community have been allocated to Mauritius to address challenges in the water sector and related infrastructure; expertise on food security has been shared and support is provided for coral conservation projects around the island.
‘From sustainable intensification of food systems to regenerative agriculture, to agroecology, such solutions offer us an opportunity to build food, social-economic and ecological resilience to the negative effects of climate change.
We must talk about food governance to address the climate crisis. We must ensure food systems are adapting to climate change and resilient enough to continue nourishing people and advancing prosperity and equitable livelihoods. The MIoD as an agent of change will remain committed to its mission to provide a forum to learn and share valuable source of information, pertaining to corporate governance to the benefit of the business community,’ said Sheila Ujoodha, Chief Executive Officer of the Mauritius Institute of Directors.
The MIOD, as an agent of change, will remain committed to its mission to provide a forum to learn and share valuable source of information pertaining to corporate governance to the benefit of the business community, she added.
