The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has today presented a revised draft Strategic Plan for ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry, 2016 – 2025, as well as the Zero Hunger Challenge in Asia and the Pacific to Agriculture and Forestry Ministers from the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for their consideration.

The strategic document was introduced during the 36th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF), by FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative Hiroyuki Konuma, on behalf of FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

Konuma expressed “FAO’s profound gratitude to AMAF and the ASEAN Secretariat for the trust and confidence in FAO to develop this important strategic document for agricultural development, food security and economic progress towards an integrated and sustainable ASEAN economic community.”

FAO and GIZ are providing technical support to ASEAN in developing its vision, objectives, goals and priorities for cooperation among its Member States in food, agriculture and forestry as part of ASEAN’s overall goal of strengthening economic integration among its Member States. All ten ASEAN Member States are also Member States of FAO.

The draft Strategic Plan was first prepared and presented to a Special Senior Officials Meeting in Malaysia last month and was presented today to AMAF for further guidance. It will be further refined by taking into account the comments and suggestions from AMAF Sector Working Groups, Task Forces and technical bodies and will be presented for final approval by the 37th AMAF in October 2015.

FAO also cooperates with ASEAN and its members in the development of an ASEAN Integrated Food Security Framework and a Strategic Plan of Action on Food Security in ASEAN. FAO provides additional regional and country-level technical cooperation in responding to the threat of transboundary animal diseases, improved nutrition and food safety approaches and balancing food security needs with developments in bioenergy.

Achieving MDG hunger goal is on track in Asia, but the Goal should be “Zero Hunger” to achieve “0” percent hunger.

Konuma also pointed out the still alarming global and regional food insecurity situation and underscored the need to eradicate hunger and malnutrition and pursue “zero hunger.”

According to the latest estimates released by FAO, WFP and IFAD on 16 September 2014, the world is a home of 805 million undernourished people in 2012-14, and one in every nine people worldwide are suffering from chronic hunger. Although the proportion of the undernourished in Asia declined from 23.7 percent in 1990-92 to 12.7 percent in 2012-14, and achieving the MDG1 target to reduce the proportion of chronic hunger to 11.8 percent by 2015 is on track (just the balance of 0.9% left to achieve), problems still exist with the last remaining 11.8 percent who constitute the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in our society who desperately require our support.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Timor-Leste became the first country which officially launched the Zero Hunger Challenge at the national level in January 2014 and formulated a National Zero Hunger Challenge Action Plan, following the global and regional zero hunger initiatives. Myanmar, Nepal and Viet Nam have decided to launch the Zero Hunger Challenge and formulate their own National ZHC Action Plans. The ASEAN countries were encouraged to implement the Zero Hunger Challenge to help move the world towards a future without hunger