Renewed Partnership Between U.N. and U.S. Peace Corps Strengthens Fight Against Hunger

An agreement was signed on Thursday between the United Nations and the United States Peace Corps marking their mutual allegiance in the battle against world hunger.  The plan -- increase food security in 76 countries where more than 8,600 U.S. volunteers work.

Signed by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), this ensures that all three organizations have access to the resources necessary to help the world's poor and hungry.  Highlighted by WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, "...we all work a hand up, not just a hand out, to improve their own ability to produce and access food for their families and communities."  Like the old saying goes, "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you, feed him for a lifetime."

The Peace Corps has worked with FAO and WFP in nearly 40 countries promoting food security through citizen participation, education, and capacity building.  Some of the techniques and practices shared between Peace Corps volunteers, FAO, and WFP include: training on sustainable gardening and organic farming, providing education on nutrition and hygiene for children, proper food storage and handling, and a workshop on how to grow produce.  This critical issue of food security must be treated at the source, the poor and the vulnerable.

"FAO and the Peace Corps have a long history of working together in rural communities throughout the world.  This agreement signals a renewed, enhanced commitment to harnessing the respective strengths and expertise of our three organizations to tackle the root causes of hunger and ensure sustainable food security and economic development."

-Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

-Georisa Chang

SOURCE: UN News

Combining Food And Fuel Systems Can Help Reduce Poverty And Increase Food And Energy Security

A new report published by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) emphasizes that farming systems which utilize crops for both food and fuel purposes can help alleviate poverty and increase food and energy security. Alexander Muller, Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources of the FAO, argues that "poor farmers can use leftovers from rice crops to produce bioenergy, or in an agroforestry system can use debris of trees used to grow crops like fruits, coconuts or coffee beans for cooking." Therefore, farmers will be able to save more money by combining food and fuel systems, because they will be less reliant on purchasing fuel and fertilizer. More money available for farmers means they can invest in inputs that will help improve their agricultural productivity, such as new seeds designed to cope with changing environmental conditions.
Currently, the new program is being carried out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, showing positive early results for farmers that are combining food crop production with the processing of wood and charcoal for fuel. Overall, the FAO stresses that integrated food-energy systems will increase agricultural yields while driving down fuel costs, benefit women by allowing them to focus more on their crops, mitigate climate change, and help increase land and water productivity.

- Brock McNairy

SOURCE: UN News Centre

Number Suffering From Chronic Hunger Drops By 100 Million in One Year

Since 2009, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide has dropped from 1.02 billion to 925 million, according to a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Many regions have made significant advances in feeding their populations, most notably in Asia, where it is estimated that 80 million fewer people will go hungry this coming year than last. Since 2000, the percentage of the world's population that suffers from world hunger has dropped from 20 to 16 percent.

Although many countries have succeeded in reducing hunger, many regions have seen little or no improvement in recent years. In sub-Saharan Africa, one out of three people are still malnourished. Additionally, two-thirds of the world's hungry live in just seven countries: Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Urging nations and individuals to continue progress toward the first target of the Millennium Development Goals, eradicating global hunger, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf calls hunger "the world's largest tragedy and scandal."

While many blame rising grain and meat prices and the ongoing economic/financial crisis for continued problems with hunger, according to the FAO, the fact that the number of undernourished citizens has risen even during historic periods of high economic growth indicates that it is not just high food prices or weaknesses in the global economy that cause hunger, but rather, deeply embedded structural deficiencies within nations and institutions. It is these problems that must continue to be addressed.

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: United Nations News Centre, Reuters (photo)