How to dramatically reduce hunger - even in very poor countries
In a recent article for Thomson Reuters, FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva outlined the steps that are needed to reduce chronic hunger. Experience shows that three types of political initiatives have been crucial to sustaining progress on food security and nutrition: political commitment at the highest level, broad social participation from civil society and the private sector, and a large-scale, comprehensive approach, linking macro-economic, social, health, sanitation, environmental, agricultural and education policies. Within these political initiatives, three main areas of action emerge: social protection; raising productivity and net incomes of small-scale agricultural producers; and using special instruments to address nutritional deficiencies in mothers and children under five years old. Focusing on these and other directives with the aim of tackling all forms of malnutrition will be the main objective of the upcoming Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2).