RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia was invited to speak in the high-level discussion on Food for Life and the Life of Food organized by FAO, IFAD, WFP, Bioversity International and the World Bank.
Participants included heads of state and government, high-level policy makers from countries and international organizations who came to share their experiences in working to reduce poverty and hunger and achieve environmental sustainability.
The event was moderated by David Nabarro, Coordinator of the High-Level Task Force on Food and Nutrition.
Speakers and panelists shared their experiences, views and recommendations for solutions: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General UN; José Graziano da Silva, Director-General FAO; Nicholas Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister UK; Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia; Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger; Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, WFP; Carlos Serge, IFAD Policy Strategist; a representative from Norway government; and a representative from Unilever.
The discussion tackled the following themes: access to food; child under-nutrition; sustainable food systems; smallholder agriculture; and reducing food losses and waste.
UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon expounded on the five aspirations of the The Zero Hunger Challenge, which include: (1) 100% access to adequate food all year round; (2) zero stunted children under 2 years old; (3) all food systems are sustainable; (4) 100% growth in smallholder productivity and income; and (5) zero loss or waste of food.
He said that the problem of hunger is not because we lack food. We produce enough food for everybody, but the problem is distribution.
The Government of Norway also said that they will give money to IFAD for small farmer adaptation to climate change.
AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia emphasized the role of the social movement. She cited the efforts of farmers organizations in struggles to fight for their land rights, share knowledge and information, and organizing for the market.
She ended her speech by informing the audience that the regional farmer and social movements have organized themselves and campaigned for an international year of family farming, which the UN systems supported, and so 2014 has been declared as the international year of family farming (IYFF).
The outcomes of the High Level side-event were fed into the final report submitted to the Rio+20 Conference, and will form the basis for further collaboration between the relevant Agencies, member states and other stakeholders.
(Report and photos by Marlene Ramirez)
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