FAO was founded on 16 October 1945

Last 16 October, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) celebrated its 70th anniversary. The date also marks World Food Day, which has been marked every year since 1981 in over 150 countries, including Mozambique.

The aim of World Food Day is to raise worldwide awareness of food and nutrition security issues and the need to eradicate hunger in our lifetimes. This year's theme has been chosen to sensitize people around the globe to the role of social protection in the fight against inequality and vulnerability as well as hunger and poverty eradication, when included as a priority in development agendas. In this context, FAO Mozambique held and participated in several activities around the day.

SOFA launch and workshop on social protection and agriculture in Maputo

On 15 October, the first launch of the report on "The State of Food and Agriculture 2015" (SOFA 2015) to take place in Mozambique saw the gathering of representatives of the public and private sectors, as well as from academia, cooperation partners and United Nations agencies.

This year's SOFA report focuses on the direct role of social protection in the fight against poverty and hunger, as well as on its indirect contribution through the promotion of agricultural and rural development. According to Maya Takagi, former FAO Senior Social Protection Officer and now Deputy Leader of the FAO Strategic Programme on the Strategic Objective 3 – Reduction of Rural Poverty, the main message of the document is linked to the fact that poverty and hunger have fallen considerably, "but progress has been uneven and numbers remain high". According to SOFA 2015, today around 800 million people still suffer from chronic hunger and almost a billion people live in extreme poverty.

In a technical workshop organized by FAO on "social protection and agriculture in Mozambique" that followed the launch, Ruben Alves, from the International Labour Organization (ILO), presented the situation on social protection in Mozambique, where, in 2014, 341.000 households (permanently unable to work) were covered by direct social action.

Launch of a Nutrition Campaign

During a "nutrition gala", organized on 16 October by the Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN) and with the participation of FAO, the First Lady as well as the ministers of Health and Agriculture and Food Security and other public figures, the institution launched a sensitization campaign on undernutrition in Mozambique under the slogan "Nutrition and Development: a commitment of all". The campaign will last four years and will include activities all around the country. The FAO Representative in Mozambique, Castro Camarada, who attended the event, explained that "the campaign will sensitize the people of Mozambique on the necessity of good nutrition, with a specific emphasis on nutrition during the first 1.000 days of life, that is, from conception until the age of two. It is a timely campaign, which we hope will bring positive results". This is a particularly important theme because maternal and child malnutrition perpetuates poverty from generation to generation. Today in Mozambique, over 40 percent of the children under five years old are still suffering from chronic undernutrition.

"Together Against Hunger" run with CPLP

Under the slogan "Together Against Hunger, for Nutrition and Development" a run was organized in partnership with the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and FAO, as part of an anti-hunger campaign aimed at mobilizing society to build a hunger-free community. The race, which took place on 17 October, was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH), while participants included the management and boards of the two ministries, the FAO Representative in Mozambique, Castro Camarada, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the mobile network operator Mcel and athletes of various fields. According to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, José Pacheco, "running was the sport of choice for the event because it is an activity which contributes to the maintenance of good health".

Event on "Social Protection and Electronic Vouchers" in Manica

But it was not only in Maputo where FAO marked World Food Day and its birthday. In Chimoio, Manica Province, the FAO sub-programme of the Millennium Development Goal 1c (MDG1c) held a public debate entitled "Social Protection and Electronic Vouchers". Shortly before the release by MDG1c of this new voucher format, the purpose of the event, attended by smallholder farmers from beneficiary Farmer Field Schools (FFSs), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Administrator of Manica District, Carlos Mutar, as well as the Director of the District Services of Economic Activities (SDAE) in Manica, Eusébio Focolone, was to serve as an information platform for beneficiaries on the operation of electronic vouchers for the purchase of inputs subsidised by FAO.
Commenting on the important link between social protection and agriculture in Mozambique, the coordinator of the FAO MDG1c Sub-programme, Walter de Oliveira, remarked that the combination of social protection and rural development is financially affordable in Mozambique. "Together with the actions of the National Institute for Social Action (INAS) and other partners, social transfer activities, such as those promoted and implemented by FAO within the MDG1c Sub-programme, can combine income support with better access to social services, particularly health and education. This will in turn reduce malnutrition and enhance income-generating capabilities of smallholder farmers."

In the year 2013, social protection programmes worldwide lifted about 150 million people out of extreme poverty in rural areas.