Chapada dos Guimarães – The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called for greater cooperation within the G20 family of nations as global hunger targets remain worryingly out of reach.
In his opening address to G20 Agriculture Working Group (AWG) Ministerial Meeting in Chapada dos Guimarães, Brazil, Qu reminded the audience that 733 million people globally continue to face hunger, meaning the world is still far off track from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).
While notable progress has been made in the Latin American and Caribbean region, the Director-General noted that hunger is still on the rise in Africa and remains relatively unchanged in Asia.
Climate change, economic shocks, and conflict are significant drivers of global hunger, and are causing “food crises of a scale not seen in many years,” Qu said.
In Sudan, for instance, over 25 million people were estimated to face high levels of acute food insecurity between June and September. In Gaza, the entire population of 2.2 million people continues to need urgent food and livelihood assistance. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, South Sudan, Pakistan, Haiti, and Nigeria, over 1 million people in each country face a food emergency.
“We cannot fail