Amid several hunger emergencies both natural and man-made, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is marking this year’s World Food Day celebrated on October 16, byhighlighting both the challenges around the world and the real progress being madetoward “zero hunger.”
“Every year, we witness hunger’s devastating effect on families, communities andwhole economies,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. “But despite horrificcrises engulfing entire regions, we are making real progress in the fight tosustainably and durably end hunger and chronic malnutrition. Thanks to the work wedo with our partners on emergency preparedness, support to family farmers,nutritional assistance – particularly in a child’s first 1,000 days – and buildingthe resilience of communities to withstand shocks, millions of people are now betterable to focus on building a future free of hunger for themselves and the next
generation.”
According to The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014(http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/2014/en/) report, the total number ofhungry people in the world is down by 37 million, to 805 million, and 63 countrieshave reached international hunger-reduction targets before 2015, proof of theprogress possible when governments, humanitarian organizations and the privatesector come together to make lasting change.
Recent studies have outlined the devastating effect that hunger and under-nutritioncan have on the lives of individuals, communities and national economies. Data froma series of studies called the Cost of Hunger in
Africa (http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/cost-hunger-africa-study-regional-look-price-child-undernutrition-africa)has shown that hunger is capable of reducing a nation’s workforce by 9.4% andnational GDPs by up to 16.5%, severely limiting a developing country’s ability tomake much needed investments and grow.
This shows why the international community must continue to strive towards a worldwith zero hunger, a world in which children and families can build their futures andfarmers can better provide for themselves and help their communities becomeself-sufficient, Cousin said.
Every year, WFP marks World Food Day alongside the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) in Rome and offices around the world.
The theme for this year’s World Food Day is “family farming,” one of the many waysWFP is supporting local economies to build self-sufficiency and people to achievezero hunger in their communities. Here are just a few of the ways WFP is helping anaverage of 90 million people a year focus on their futures:
- Providing emergency food assistance (http://www.wfp.org/emergencies) topeople affected by natural and manmade disasters, such as the outbreak of Ebola inWest Africa and the civil conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic andSouth Sudan.
- Running or supporting school meals programmes (https://www.wfp.org/school-meals/wfp-school-meals)in remote places,giving roughly 20 million of the poorest children a chance at a brighter future.
- Prioritizing the purchase of food<http://www.wfp.org/procurement> indeveloping countries and from family and small-scale farmers (http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress)to support local economies.
- Partnering with companies and organizations (http://www.wfp.org/partners/private-sector?icn=homepage-privatesector&ici=homepage-link)around the world to improve WFP operations, create innovative solutions and raisefunds and awareness
In Ghana, WFP continues to support the national home-grown school feeding
programme, resilience building initiatives in the Brong-Ahafo, Volta and northernregions, and the Purchase for Progress initiative which is working to improve thelives of over 1,500 family and smallholder farmers in the Ashanti and NorthernRegions,” said WFP Ghana Representative Pippa Bradford.
Although the State of FoodInsecurity in the World 2014 shows that Ghana has made progress in reducing itspopulation of undernourished people to less than 5 percent, we still need to payattention to micronutrient deficiencies, moderate acute and chronic malnutrition,and keep drumming the message of good nutrition during the first 1,000 days of achild’s life, so that the country moves faster towards the zero hunger objective in a more holistic manner.
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