Rome Water Dialogue underway @FAO - NaijaAgroNet

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A one-day hybrid event has been slated to hold at the headquarters of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome on 29 November, starting at 09: 00 CET, ahead of the 2023 World Water Conference, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Water is central to agriculture, which accounts for 72 percent of global freshwater withdrawals. And while awareness of water’s importance is growing, much more still needs to be done to value and manage it in a coordinated and holistic way to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Hackers invade FAO headquarters

NaijaAgroNet:

Last Friday, a group of Italian and international hackers literally invaded headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome for a United States (US)- government-sponsored ‘Fishackathon’ reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Fishackathon, NaijaAgroNet reports, was aimed at cooking up high-tech solutions to problems that have long plagued fishing communities around the globe.

The Assistant Director-General of FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Árni M. Mathiesen, said that working in teams in a marathon hacking session, the group of around 30 coders, technology students, developers and designers will be asked to harness FAO data to develop creative mobile applications, systems, and tools to help tackle key challenges facing sustainable fisheries.

Mathiesen also said that these range from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, to overfishing and degradation of fishing grounds, to post harvest losses of catches.

Teams of 2-8 people joined forces to brainstorm solutions that responses to one of nine fisheries-related problem statements to be provided.

On Sunday, FAO experts would judge the submissions and one team will be chosen as the winner.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the exercise now in its third year, the Fishackathon was first launched in 2014 by US Secretary of State John Kerry at the Our Oceans conference is an event taking place in 40 cities around the globe.

The winners of each, including this weekend's Italian edition, will move forward into a global contest whose final outcome will be announced by the US government on June 8 at World Oceans Day 2016.

Last year's Fishackathon winners included a game to teach children about sustainable fishing, an app to help consumers find and eat sustainable seafood, and a reporting tool for marine mammal protection.

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FAO to unveil report of hungry people

NaijaAgroNet

 

The annual State of Food Insecurity in the world report would be unveiled at the forthcoming World Food Summit in Rome with expectation it will provide new figures for the number of chronically hungry people globally, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The meeting, NaijaAgroNet  reports, would also take stock of progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) as it kicks off on Wednesday, May 27, 2015.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that United Nations (UN) bodies slated to present their reports include the three Rome-based food agencies, namely the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN World Food Program (WFP).

The new hunger report, NaijaAgroNet gathered, would be presented jointly at FAO’s headquarters by its Director-General José Graziano da Silva, IFAD Associate Vice-President, Josefina Stubbs and Stanlake Samkange, Director of WFP's Policy and Programme Division.

In addition, Maurizio Martina Italy's Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, NaijaAgroNet learnt, would participate via videolink from EXPO 2015 in Milan.

This year’s edition of State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) contains updated estimates of the number and proportion of hungry people in the world in 2015, the target year of the Millennium Development Goals.

It also offers analysis into what drives successful anti-hunger programs, such as agricultural investments, in addition to the growing importance of social protection schemes and the new challenges presented by the increasingly protracted nature of crises, NaijaAgroNet also gathered.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

 
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FAO, WHO host preparatory technical meeting on nutrition

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO), Wednesday commence a three-day preparatory technical meeting on nutrition in Rome on major nutrition challenges (ICN2).

The meeting is also expected to enhance international cooperation, even as they would collaborate with the Italian Foreign Ministry on Thursday to host the ‘Gender, nutrition and agriculture’ side-event.

NaijaAgroNet reports that the United Nations (UN) System Standing Committee on Nutrition seminar with Bioversity International and Govt of Malawi on nutrition and sustainability was held on Tuesday.

Also NaijaAgroNet reports that everyone has the right to good nutrition and yet the figures showed that all too many people are denied this right.

“Some 842 million people are chronically hungry, but many more die or suffer the ill effects of inadequate nutrition,” experts from FAO disclosed, while about 2 billion people are affected by micronutrient deficiencies.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet gathered that an estimated 7 million children die before their fifth birthday every year, 162 million children under five are stunted while at the same time, 500 million people are obese.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that over 50 countries and many international experts will gather at FAO headquarters in Rome to focus on ways to speed up improvements in nutrition - especially in developing countries, through policy changes, international coordination and the exchange of knowledge.

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Pix: Graziano da Silva  DG, FAO

World agriculture ministers to brainstorm on international food prices

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

 Agriculture Ministers from around the world would Monday, 7 October assemble at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome for the second ministerial meeting to brainstorm on international food prices.

NaijaAgroNet gathered from a news briefing hosted by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silvawith that some 40 ministers and deputy ministers have confirmed their participation in the forum that is meant to pool knowledge on how to enhance the effectiveness of measures to address food security problems caused by international food price volatility.

It will recalled that the first meeting on food price volatility was held in October 2012 in response to the third spike in international grain prices in five year, although prices of cereals and oilseeds on international markets have fallen from the peaks reached in July 2012, they remain high and there are concerns that markets continue to be vulnerable to supply shocks.

“The event will be held on the first day of the 40th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), even though  the ministerial meeting is not part of CFS, it will allow CFS delegates to follow the proceedings,” he said.

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