Brussels, 05/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The links between climate change, hunger and malnutrition in the world will be at the centre of an international conference organised in Dublin on 15-16 April by the Irish government and Climate Justice, Mary Robinson's foundation, as part of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“A New Dialogue: Putting People at the Heart of Global Development” is both the theme and the objective of this conference which will bring together several heads of state including President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, President of Malawi Joyce Banda, political decision-makers, scientists and up to 100 representatives from farmers' organisations and vulnerable communities from Africa, Asia and the Arctic who are the most affected by climate change and who will explain the impact of this on their lives.
At a time when the United Nations is working on post-2015 development objectives, in other words after the expiry date of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the reflection will enable a contribution to be made to this exercise to guarantee that the most vulnerable populations are right at the centre of the efforts deployed to meet this threefold challenge.
On Thursday 4 April, a meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), focusing on the United Nations vision for fighting against world hunger after 2015, highlighted that despite the progress achieved on pursuing the MDG, the war against hunger was far from over.
“The Millennium Development Goals have pushed us forward. But with 870 million people still suffering from hunger, the war against food insecurity is far from over”, said José Graziano da Silva, the FAO director general. Consequently there is a need for significant public and private investment in the rural areas where over 70% of the hungry live and where millions of people depend on agriculture for food and employment, including 500 million smallholder farm families. (AN/transl.fl)