The head of the Food and Agriculture
Organization says this generation could eliminate hunger.
“We know what it takes,” says director-general José Graziano Da Silva.
“We know what it costs. We can be the Zero Hunger
Generation, paving the way to a sustainable and inclusive future that leads no
one behind.”
“The world has declared: ‘Our goal is to end
poverty and hunger,’” he told world leaders and other attendees of the United
Nations Third International Conference on Financing for Development.
About 70 per cent of poverty occurs outside of
urban areas, which typically fall through the nets created by traditional
social security systems. Because of that, rural development should be a pillar
of any successful hunger initiative.
The UN says another $267 billion annually would
need to be invested in both rural and urban efforts for poor people across the
world to gain appropriate access to food and means to improve their
livelihoods.
That’s the equivalent of about $160 for each person
who lives in extreme poverty – a fraction of the burden that malnutrition
places on economies all over the world, de Silva says.
In other words, investing to eliminate poverty
would actually profit, rather than cost, the global economy.
According to a recent report by the FAO, the World
Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, cash
transfers would allow poor families access to more diverse and healthier diets.
Private investment alone cannot break entrenched
cycles of rural poverty.
Also, agriculture in these areas could prove much
more efficient and effective if public sector investments could bolster rural
infrastructure, health and education in these areas.
The report also suggests the potential for a
snowball effect.
In other words, investments to abolish extreme
hunger will ramp up productivity and earnings, allowing people in poverty to
set about breaking those cycles.
