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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) wrapped up its week-long biennial conference in the Italian capital of Rome Saturday, highlighting climate change and nutrition as priorities in ongoing efforts to increase food security and eradicate global hunger.
Conference outcomes also included decision to move toward geographically decentralization to strengthen FAO's region-specific work and bring initiatives closer to regional populations the organization aims to support.
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"If FAO's main mission is to end hunger and malnutrition, then FAO needs to offer holistic support, needs to support sustainable production and management of natural resources, needs to be able to offer support in social protection to reduce rural poverty, needs to improve access to markets by family farmers and needs to help build resilience in rural populations," said FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva, who was re-elected for a second term on the opening day of the conference.
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RT @FAOKnowledge: #InCaseYouMissedIt: DG @grazianodasilva "State of #UNFAO" speech at #UNFAO39 http://t.co/hxUPxhpssd pic.twitter.com/b6lGWpZTpp
— Graziano da Silva (@grazianodasilva)
June 9, 2015
Graziano da Silva emphasized as top priorities increasing nutrition with quality, healthy food to ensure food security with dignity, as well as mitigating the impacts of climate change on food and agriculture in all regions, but especially developing countries. He also pointed to the role of strong social protection, echoing Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's and former Brazilian President Ignacio Lula da Silva's discussions of strategies behind their countries' notable achievements in poverty and hunger reduction.
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Boasting record attendance of over 1,700 delegates, including 16 heads of state and over 110 ministers from 197 FAO member states, the conference reestablished the organization's strategic direction with a focus on eliminating hunger and malnutrition; increasing agricultural productivity and sustainability; reducing rural poverty; promoting inclusive food systems; and increasing resilience.
Reducing rural poverty & improving food sec in #LAC region through #familyfarming http://t.co/DSJ6BatJwQ pic.twitter.com/AnGQPX2X7m
— FAOKnowledge (@FAOKnowledge)
June 13, 2015
The conference also stressed the importance of south-south cooperation, an approach to development that promotes Global South knowledge networks to facilitate exchange of experiences and policy, technology, and development strategies, in tackling global poverty and food insecurity. Solidarity and south-south exchanges can also help promote sustainable and alternative agricultural practices also essential to increasing food security and farmer resilience.
RELATED: Latin America's Future Tied to Sustainable, Subsistence Farming
During an address to conference participants, Pope Francis also underlining FAO priorities and role of global solidarity in the fight against food insecurity. “Let us today change our relationship with natural resources, the use of land; let us change consumption patterns, without falling into the slavery of consumerism; let us eliminate waste, for that way we will conquer hunger,” the Pontiff said.
Taking stock of progress made towards achieving the intl hunger targets http://t.co/lSDxtdRGzm #SOFI2015 pic.twitter.com/VMkFK0IEIx
— FAOKnowledge (@FAOKnowledge)
June 13, 2015
The conference also recognized the outstanding achievements of several countries in combating food insecurity. The Latin American countries of Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Suriname were among 15 countries recognized for reducing the level of hunger in their countries by at least half.
"Since 1990, 216 million people have been freed from hunger," said FAO's Graziano da Silva. “If we all do our part, zero hunger can be achieved within our lifetimes.”
