In collaboration with the United Nations, the Royal Government of Cambodia has launched the National Zero Hunger Challenge (ZHC), a major initiative to eradicate hunger in the country by 2025.

The official launch, led by H.E Dr. Yim Chhay Ly, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), symbolizes the Government’s commitment to achieving Zero Hunger by 2025. Supporting the initiative are Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Claire Van der Vaeren, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cambodia and David Kaatrud, World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for Asia.

The Zero Hunger Challenge was launched globally by the United Nations Secretary-General at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June 2012. The ZHC calls on world leaders to join forces to end hunger and achieve sustainable development.

To assist the Government to achieve this goal by the target date, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will provide collective assistance to help develop the country’s National Action Plan to successfully achieve the ZHC initiative.  The National Action Plan will create an institutional platform to design, implement and coordinate food security and nutrition policy measures so as to have the maximum sustainable impact on national food security, sustainable poverty reduction and new rural development.

In his opening speech, the Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Yim Chhay Ly announced the Royal Government of Cambodia’s appreciation for, and commitment to, the ZHC. He explained CARD is the Government’s policy advisor for agricultural and rural development, food security, nutrition and social protection designated to coordinate efforts within the government as well as with development partners.

“The ZHC is one of the efforts complementing international and regional programmes such as Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition, and the national programmes that contribute to the reduction of hunger, poverty and malnutrition,” said Dr. Yim Chhay Ly.

“We are encouraged by Cambodia’s commitment to eradicate hunger,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. "We welcome that Cambodia has joined the Zero Hunger Challenge – launched by the Secretary-General – a challenge that is not a dream. All of us should answer, as individuals, governments and the international community towards achieving this goal," he added.

During a presentation, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Hiroyuki Konuma, highlighted Cambodia’s recent achievements in fighting hunger, down from 49 percent to 32 percent in 2014. According to the FAO/WFP/IFAD report State of Food Insecurity 2014, the Asia-Pacific region has made good progress in reducing hunger by half by 2015 – a key target of the Millennium Development Goals. However the region is still home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s 805 million chronically undernourished people.

“Cambodia has already reduced the proportion of undernourished by more than 17 percent since 2000, and the country is recognized as successfully having reached the MDG 1 target of reducing hunger by half by 2015,” said Konuma. “But we must not stop there – let’s move for zero. Zero hunger is not an impossible target. FAO’s continuing support to the Government of Cambodia and development partners, including the Civil Society Organizations, will help us meet the challenges ahead and to attain our common Zero Hunger goal,” Konuma added.

Claire Van der Vaeren, the UN Resident Coordinator remarked that the National ZHC enables existing initiatives to work more closely together, find synergies and maximize impact in the elimination of hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Cambodia, goals the UN has already committed to in its United Nations Development Assistant Framework (UNDAF). She further emphasized the leading role of the UN in supporting the national efforts to coordinate, plan and implement the Zero Hunger Challenge in the country.

“I am pleased to acknowledge that the UN Country Team, particularly FAO, WFP, UNICEF and development partners are working closely with each other and with other entities to pull together the existing initiatives and sector priorities under the overall coordination of the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) to deliver the National Action Plan for Zero Hunger Challenge in Cambodia,” Claire Van der Vaeren said. “The Action Plan contributes to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.”

Guests at the launch included over 200 representatives from key ministries, development partners, UN agencies, national and international organizations, civil society organizations, and the private sector.