FAO reiterates support to eradicate hunger, malnutrition - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has reiterated support to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, especially in Portuguese-speaking countries, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva disclosed this in Cape Verde, Monday, as part of efforts at consolidating the National Councils of Food and Nutritional Security function.

He pointed out to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) that in the implementation of their Regional Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition to eradicate hunger and will ensure adequate food in the lusophone countries.

He stressed that FAO will continue to support the work of the National Food and Nutritional Security Councils (CONSAN), that have been set up in seven of the bloc’s nine member states (Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bisau and, as of last week, Portugal)) and said he hoped that both Angola and Equatorial Guinea would follow their example.

"National Councils are fundamental to promote better governance of the Regional Strategy and an inclusive dialogue between the various governmental and non-governmental actors," said Graziano da Silva, addressing the Second Meeting of the Food and Nutrition Security Council of the CPLP taking place this week in Cape Verde.

"Today, more than ever, it is essential to listen to and consider the opinions of international organizations, civil society, the private sector, parliamentarians, research institutes and the academic world," he added.  Graziano da Silva reiterated that only by working together, the international community will be able to overcome the challenges for sustainable development and ensure that no one is left behind in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Ulisses Correia e Silva, Prime Minister of Cape Verde, emphasized the importance of raising the status of CONSAN as an advisory body to CPLP Heads of State and Government, suggesting that is regular meetings always be held on the sidelines of CPLP summits.

The Santa Maria Declaration adopted today by CONSAN-CPLP recognized Graziano da Silva’s work and leadership as FAO Director-General and his efforts to make it a more efficient and effective organization in support of member states for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The community of Portuguese-speaking countries includes Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor Leste.

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Pix: FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva

Rotary gives $49.5m to help eradicate polio

NaijaAgroNet:

With just 11 confirmed polio cases so far in 2017, the world is on the brink of eradicating polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children each year, reports NaijaAgroNet.

To this effect, Rotary International has voted the sum of $49.5m to help eradicate polio and its attendant challenges, arguing that without full funding and political commitment to eradication, the disease could return to countries that are now polio-free and put children everywhere at risk.

Chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, Michael K. McGovern, said this donation was in recognition of the historic progress worldwide and will aid the hosting of events in conjunction with Rotary International’s fifth annual World Polio Day celebration on October 24, 2017.

This year, he also said, the event will be co-hosted by Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and held at the foundation’s headquarters in Seattle. The program will feature an update on the global fight to end polio and an array of guest speakers, celebrities, and public health experts. People around the world can view the livestream of the event at this link on October 24 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time.

“Rotary and its partners are closer than ever to eradicating polio. World Polio Day is the ideal opportunity to celebrate our successes, raise public awareness, and talk about what is needed to end this paralyzing disease for good,” he said.

Rotary, he said, has granted $49.5 million to support immunization and surveillance activities led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Specifically, some of the funds will support efforts to end polio in the three countries where polio remains endemic: Afghanistan ($9.32 million), Pakistan ($8.94 million), and Nigeria ($7.71 million).

NaijaAgroNet said, further funding will support efforts to keep six vulnerable countries polio-free: Chad ($2.37 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($4.5 million), Guinea ($961,000), Somalia ($1.62 million), South Sudan ($3.77 million), and Sudan ($2.56 million). An additional $7.74 million will go toward surveillance activities in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region.

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UN stresses need to eradicate poverty

NaijaAgroNet:

In marking the 24th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP), the United Nations has underscored the need to recognize and address the humiliation and exclusion endured by many people living in poverty, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, noted that as the world work together to honour the pledge to build a life of peace, prosperity and dignity for all, the world must recognize that prejudice and discrimination seriously impede efforts.

“To end poverty, we must commit to respect and defend the human rights of all people and end the humiliation and social exclusion that the poor face every day,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that this year marks the first commemoration of IDEP since the launch of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals in January 2016. Recent estimates show that despite significant gains since 2002 – the number of people living below the poverty line dropped by half – 1 in 8 people still live in extreme poverty, including 800 million people who do not have enough to eat.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet gathered that an estimated 2.4 billion people have no access to improved sanitation, 1.1 billion people have no access to electricity and 880 million people live in urban slums. Opportunities continue to remain scarce for the world’s most vulnerable people – 59 million children of primary school age are out of school and the youth unemployment rate is 15 per cent, more than three times the rate of adults.

“With its central pledge to leave no one behind, the historic and ambitious new 2030 Agenda recognises that development will only be sustainable if it is inclusive,” said the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo.

“We need to change the course of human development from one characterized by exclusion, inequalities, conflict, and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, to one that is more inclusive, equitable and sustainable,” Hongbo said.

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