ShareROME: Kuwait has affirmed the role of institutions and individuals throughout the globe for boosting food security for all nations. Yousef Juhail, the head of the Kuwaiti delegation and the state's permanent representative at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), affirmed the significance of celebrating World Food Day on Sunday for promoting communities' nutritional awareness, stimulating individuals and institutions to enhance global food security and stopping the spread of hunger.
Juhail, who currently chairs the G77 plus China, said the world produces enough food to feed every individual living on the planet, but a third of the food and agricultural crops per year are wasted. He was speaking during a session held on Friday celebrating FAO's 16th anniversary and World Food Day. It was attended by a Kuwaiti delegation headed by Juhail, officials representing the organization's member states and dignitaries, notably UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Elaborating, Juhail said the motto of the new World Food Day, "leaving no one behind," means that there should be simultaneous action on various fronts to alter nutrition and agricultural systems, eradicate poverty and tackle malnutrition, which are the first and second objectives of the UN sustainable development strategy, in addition to the 10th goal, which is containing inequality.
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu inaugurated the session, saying in his keynote address: "In the shadow of the emerging hunger crisis gripping the globe, states should seek collective action to build a better future where peoples will be able to have access to food regularly." Some 828 million people were threatened with hunger in 2021, he revealed, also disclosing that 3.1 billion individuals cannot afford costs of healthy nutrition in the coming years. He called for action against food wastage, urged rational management of natural resources and limiting greenhouse emissions.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella affirmed in his address to the broad gathering that millions of people worldwide are deprived of a fair share of the global food output. In a video statement addressed to the conferees, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said World Food Day coincides with critical conditions worldwide at the nutrition level, urging stakeholders to abstain from despair and resort to action.
For his part, Pope Francis, in a statement read on his behalf by the Vatican envoy at FAO during the gathering, warned that the world is currently engaged in a "third global war", urging the stakeholders "not to leave any one behind" in efforts to secure necessities for nations and communities across the globe. Chairman of the International Fund for Agricultural Development Alvaro Lario called for aiding "small farmers" who secure nutrition for communities, despite their hard living conditions.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of the World Food Program David Beasley warned that global food production would be badly affected in the coming months due to conflicts and climatic change. FAO, on the two occasions, called for renewed efforts towards attaining goals of the 2020 sustainable development agenda by improving laborers' living standards, utilities in the countryside, gender equality, social solidarity and tackling child labor.
On sidelines of the session, held at the FAO headquarters in the Italian capital Rome, participants visited an exhibition displaying pictures and photos about the impact of climatic change, taken from space. World Food Day will also feature activities and group initiatives in 150 countries around the world. The activists, representing governments, businesses, associations and the media, are promoting slogans and concepts that call for action against hunger and urge for healthy food for all. - KUNA
