News

Geneva, 15 March, 2013 – A top-level United Nations conference has, for the first time, laid the foundations for practical and proactive national drought policies to increase resilience to the world’s most destructive natural hazard, which is being aggravated by climate change. The High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy marked the first globally-coordinated attempt to move towards science-based drought disaster risk reduction and break away from piecemeal and costly crisis-response, which often comes too late to avert death, displacement and destruction. The meeting issued a declaration encouraging governments to develop and implement national drought management policies consistent with their development objectives. It...

13 March 2013, Rome - A new, faster and more precise way of measuring hunger and food insecurity across the world is soon to be field-tested by FAO in several pilot countries. The new approach relies on gathering information on the extent and severity of hunger from food-insecure people, through a carefully-designed annual survey to be conducted in collaboration with polling specialists Gallup, Inc. Starting this month, the new approach - known as the Voices of the Hungry project -- will be finalized in collaboration with major experts in the field and tested on a pilot basis in four countries to be...

Council met this week to review FAO's work.7 December 2012, Rome - FAO's governing Council ended its week-long meeting by endorsing a change in the Organization's first global goal from merely reducing hunger to its eradication. "This unequivocal commitment sets our sights where they should be," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. "We cannot accept anything less than the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition." The Council, which meets every six months to oversee programme and budgetary activities, also endorsed the strategic objectives that will guide FAO's future work. "The strategic objectives which you have endorsed set us in the right...

26 February 2013, Rome - The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and FAO on Monday formally partnered to identify opportunities where Brazilian experience and expertise can best contribute to the battle against hunger under FAO’s South-South Cooperation initiative...

Rome - A global multi-stakeholder consultation to discuss the world development agenda beyond 2015 has called for  food security and nutrition to be the central element in future development efforts. New development objectives should be established for the entire global community.The one-day consultation on Hunger, Food Security and Nutrition in the Post-2015 Development Agenda stressed that food security and nutrition represent the cornerstone for progress on other development fronts such as employment, education, the environment and health and in achieving a quality future for humankind.The meeting, on Monday, brought together some 180 government, international organization, civil society and private sector...