MADRID, 10 May 2012: Speaking at an international economic forum in Madrid, Mr. da Silva said that although there is “increasing convergence” (samstemmighed) on how to boost food security and development”, there is currently a significant problem – funding.
A dramatic example is the funding gap for FAO initiatives in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, he said:
“In the Horn of Africa we are losing the window of opportunity to build on our recent achievements – which helped to overcome the famine declared last year in Somalia – increasing the resilience of families facing drought.”
Boosting food security involved combining emergency action with support for family farming and smallholder production, promoting development initiatives in the long term, and reducing vulnerability to extreme events, he said.
Joint effort needed against hunger
With one in every seven people in the world suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition, “fighting hunger is a challenge too great for FAO or any government to overcome alone,” Da Silva noted, adding;
“It must involve civil society, private enterprise, international agencies, and the governments of developing and developed countries. For this reason we have opened the doors of FAO to new allies with whom we share a common set of principles”.
Kilde: www.fao.org
