“Even today, in a world of abundant food over 840 million people are still undernourished,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said. “Ensuring food security and helping people overcome extreme poverty are the first steps to build the inclusive future we want, in which nobody is left behind.”

 

Graziano da Silva awarded Chile’s Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Furche, and Morocco’s Minister of Agriculture and Marine Fisheries, Aziz Akhannouch, with diplomas for the achievement by their countries of the Millennium Development Goal on halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015.

 

He also presented a diploma to Vice Minister of Agriculture, Chen Xiaohua, for China’s achievement of the 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) target, which requires countries to at least halve the number of hungry people in the population before the end of 2015 compared to the level in 1990. Beijing has already reached its MDG-1 target.

 

“One year ago we celebrated the first 38 countries that had achieved the MDG target, three years in advance of the 2015 deadline. Eighteen of them had also met the World Food Summit target. Now we come together to recognize three more countries for their efforts,” said Graziano da Silva.

 

Such achievements, the FAO chief said, show how that political commitment is being transformed into effective action and concrete results in the fight against hunger.

 

The FAO also commended 16 countries for having maintained their hunger rates below 5 per cent dating back to at least 1990: Argentina, Barbados, Dominica, Brunei Darussalam, Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

 

According to Monday’s news release, FAO and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) will co-organize a high-level global intergovernmental meeting in Rome starting on 19 November. The Second International Conference on Nutrition is part of an effort to seek renewed global commitment to ending hunger, and in particular ensuring that people around the world have access to healthier diets.

 

(Left to Right) Xiaohua Chen of China, Carlos Furche of Chile, FAO Director-General José Graziano Da Silva and Aziz Akhannouch of Morocco. Photo: FAO/Alessandra Benedetti