Zero Hunger Challenge passed to Rome UN agencies

Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon passes over Zero Hunger Challenge to UN Rome-based agencies

 ROME -- The heads of the Rome-based food and agriculture agencies thanked United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his personal commitment and leadership in challenging the world to reach Zero Hunger, promising to maintain momentum to reach the ambitious target by 2030.

 The Zero Hunger Challenge was launched in 2012 by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who handed the Zero Hunger initiative on to the three agencies Sept. 22 at an event in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

 “Many have responded to the Zero Hunger Challenge,” the Secretary-General said. “As I end my term in office, I am asking FAO, WFP and IFAD to take my Challenge forward. I am confident they will not rest until Zero Hunger is a reality.”

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, José Graziano da Silva, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Kanayo F. Nwanze, and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Ertharin Cousin, committed their organizations to take over the Zero Hunger Challenge and pursue its goals.

 Speaking ahead of the “Pathways to Zero Hunger” event, sponsored by the three agencies, the UN Global Compact and the office of the SG’s youth envoy, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said: "There was a time when food security, nutrition, rural livelihoods, and sustainable agriculture were viewed as separate tasks, as the responsibility of different actors, and with different purposes.”

 “The success of the Zero Hunger pioneered in Brazil and adopted and adapted in countries throughout the world show that these issues should be tackled together, in an all out effort involving governments, international institutions, family farmers, civil society and the private sector.”

 “The Secretary-General has always urged us to work as partners and build a truly global movement towards Zero Hunger. His leadership is an inspiration and we in Rome must now play an even greater role to generate momentum and strengthen partnerships to realize his vision of a world free from hunger,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.

 In Rome, ahead of the New York event, IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze had said, “With almost 800 million people going to bed hungry every night, it is vital that we build on the momentum generated by the Zero Hunger Challenge and the Secretary-General. Together we can deliver zero hunger, but only if we focus on rural areas of developing countries where most of the world’s poorest and hungriest people live.”

 The Zero Hunger Challenge calls on leaders, businesses and civil society to step up efforts to end hunger in our lifetimes. It is based around five objectives: access to enough food and a healthy diet for all people, all year round; an end to malnutrition in all its forms; sustainable food systems from production to consumption; an end to rural poverty -- doubling smallholder productivity and incomes; and adapting food systems to eliminate loss and waste.

 gn