Zero Hunger Champion Award presented to Graziano da Silva

15 July 2019, New York - Today, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva was awarded a Zero Hunger Champion Award by the Alliance to End Hunger in recognition of his “tireless leadership and service in pursuit of a hunger-free world.”

Rebecca Middleton, Executive Director of the Alliance to End Hunger, presented the award at a high-level event featuring the FAO Director-General and prominent U.S. civil society and private sector stakeholders, who discussed ways of addressing the global pandemic of obesity and malnutrition. The event took place at the FAO Liaison Office in New York.

 “I am pleased and greatly honored to receive this award,” said Graziano da Silva. The award coincided with the launch of the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report at the High Level Political Forum in New York. ”According to the latest SOFI report, 821 million are suffering from hunger, while 2 billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food, including 8 percent of the population of Northern America and Europe. Furthermore obesity is rising faster than hunger worldwide.” He emphasized that civil society and the private sector have a great role to play in tranforming our food system to deliver sustainable and healthy diets, especially with the coinciding Decade on Nutrtion and the Decade on Family Farming.

“We are incredibly grateful for the true leadership displayed by the Director-General these past seven years,” said Rebecca Middleton, head of the Alliance to End Hunger, a coalition of more than 90 corporations, non-profit and faith-based organizations, universities, foundations and individuals. “His commitment to partnership with civil society is critical if we are to end hunger, and he has left a positive legacy at FAO and throughout our anti-hunger community.” 

The Zero Hunger objective is enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals, through which all UN member states pledged to eradicate all forms of malnutrition by 2030. SOFI 2019 report provides a clarion call for accelerated actions and increased political will to achieve Zero Hunger and to end malnutrition in all its forms - including obesity and overweight - by 2030.