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FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

FAO warns of increase in hunger and stresses urgency to respond

03/10/2017

“There is an urgency to act in response to the rise in hunger that we see today, and also to implement sustainable solutions that build resilience and longer-term food security,” said Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office to the United Nations in New York, during the Seventy-second Session of the United Nations General Assembly Second Committee at the UN Headquarters on 3 October, 2017.

Delivering the remarks on behalf of FAO, Mucavi reassured FAO’s continued support to the work of the Committee, including to the upcoming consultations on the Resolutions on Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition and on Agricultural Technology for Sustainable Development.

She also invited the Committee to carefully review the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017, which was jointly prepared by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO and launched in September 2017. Citing the figures from the report, Mucavi informed that, only two years after its adoption and after years of reduction, the number of chronically undernourished people has reached 815 million in 2016, up from 777 million in 2015.

“The report notes that, to ensure that no-one is left behind requires a conflict-sensitive approach aligning actions for immediate humanitarian assistance, long-term development and sustaining peace (SDG16),” Mucavi said.  

Mucavi also shared the key findings from an Expert Group Meeting on SDG 2, which was co-organized by DESA, FAO, IFAD, WFP and DESA in preparation for the High-level Political Forum in July 2017, while inviting the Committee members to attend World Food Day on October 16, noting that World Food Day coincides with the discussions that the Second Committee will have on Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition.

Chaired by His Excellency Mr. Sven Jürgenson of Estonia, the seventy-second session of the Second Committee will focus on issues relating to economic growth and development such as macroeconomic policy questions; financing for development; sustainable development; human settlements; globalization and interdependence; eradication of poverty; operational activities for development; agriculture development, food security and nutrition; information and communications technologies for development; and towards global partnerships.