Media Advisory: Asia-Pacific on track for meeting MDG hunger reduction target
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to consider next steps to achieve ‘zero hunger’ across Asia and the Pacific: FAO Regional Conference for Asia and Pacific (10 – 14 March 2014)
03/03/2014 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Government Ministers and high-level officials from nearly 40 countries are set to gather in Asia’s largest land-locked country to discuss ways and means to bring an end to hunger and improve food security across this vast continent.
Hosted by the Government of Mongolia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will convene its Thirty-Second Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 10 – 14 March, 2014.
Impressive gains have been made in reducing hunger in Asia and the Pacific and, regionally, the Millennium Development Goal to reduce hunger by half by 2015 is now within reach. However the region remains home to more than 60 percent of the world’s hungry people, with malnutrition disproportionately affecting millions of children. In many developing countries of Asia, the stunting of children, a condition caused by micronutrient deficiency where a child does not reach her/his full physical and cognitive development, afflicts as many as 30-50 percent of children.
The delegates to APRC will focus their discussions on the state of food and agriculture in Asia-Pacific and progress made so far in meeting the MDG goal, as well as the Zero Hunger Challenge, a UN campaign to eradicate hunger entirely by 2025. The participants will also examine ways and means to restore grasslands and forests, adopt greener agricultural practices across the region in ways that benefit family farms, and improvements in food security for Pacific Island Countries.
The APRC will also cover a number of other issues vital to the well-being of farmers, fishers, foresters, businesses, the environment and, of course, consumers of food and agricultural products in the world’s most populous region.
The first three days of the APRC (10-12th March) will be attended by senior government officials. Government Ministers and high-level participants will arrive on the 12th March for a two-day ministerial segment (13-14th March). The FAO’s Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, will travel to Mongolia to participate in the Conference. A round table discussion on the ‘double burden of malnutrition’ will be held on the final day, moderated by a BBC television presenter.
You or your representatives are cordially invited to attend the conference. All formal sessions of the APRC are open to accredited media representatives.