Summary The fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Population and Development was held in a hybrid format at United Nations Headquarters from 19 to 23 April 2021. Its special theme was “Population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development”. Opening statements were made by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration and Burkinabè Abroad of Burkina Faso; the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist on behalf of the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs; and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. Informal consultations were led by two Vice-Chairs of the Bureau, Cristina Popescu (Romania) and Nizar Kaddouh (Lebanon). The co-facilitators convened informal consultations on draft proposals from 29 March to 19 April 2021. On 23 April, the Commission adopted by consensus the draft resolution on population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development (E/CN.9/2021/L.5). The resolution reaffirmed the commitment of Member States to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development; expressed concern about rising levels of hunger and high levels of malnutrition; emphasized that the promotion of sustainable food systems and agricultural production were key elements for the eradication of poverty; recognized the crucial contributions of rural women to local and national economies and to food production; called for equal access of women to land and natural resources; expressed concern about the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on, inter alia, access to sexual and reproductive health services; called for greater efforts to transform food systems to make them more sustainable and resilient; urged Member States to take actions at the national and local levels that aim at enabling access to safe, sufficient, affordable, nutritious and diverse food and healthy diets for all, including those living in vulnerable situations; encouraged efforts at all levels to establish and strengthen social protection measures and programmes; called upon the international community to combat the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic; and emphasized the importance of reliable, timely, high-quality, accessible and disaggregated demographic data for the review of and follow-up to the International Conference on Population and Development and for reviewing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Commission also agreed that the theme of the fifty-sixth session of the Commission would be population, education and sustainable development (E/CN.9/2021/L.4). Furthermore, the Commission approved the provisional agenda for its fifty-fifth session in 2022 (E/CN.9/2021/L.2) as well as the draft report on its fifty-fourth session (E/CN.9/2021/L.3). During the session, the Commission considered four reports of the SecretaryGeneral. The report of the Secretary-General on population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development (E/CN.9/2021/2), prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, contains a review of global trends in food security and nutrition. In his report, the Secretary-General stresses that, while enough food is produced globally to feed the current population, the world is not on track to eliminate hunger by 2030 owing to inequities in distribution and access. After more than a decade of progress, the number of undernourished persons worldwide has increased in recent years, a trend expected to be exacerbated by the impacts of the 21-06093 3/32