The FAO must do more to promote food as a basic human right

Should the UN's leading food security agency prioritise helping countries boost their agricultural production with subsidised chemical fertiliser, or promote ecological farming practices? Should it help countries protect themselves against import surges, or open them to the global marketplace? Should it work exclusively with national ministries of agriculture, or demand inter-ministerial and civil society participation? (..) Supporting countries and regions to design their food security strategies is the bread and butter of what the FAO does – and has yielded many impressive results.

'Virtuous circle' of politics, innovation needed to beat hunger - expert

To combat the daily reality of hunger, the world must create a “virtuous circle” where rural farmers produce a better yield as an engine not only to boost rural economic growth, but to improve economic growth worldwide, said Sir Gordon Conway during a webcasted discussion with UN food agencies in Rome. “Agriculture and food security are important not just to the rural economy but to the world economy as a whole,” said the international development expert at Imperial College London during the two-day discussion with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Conway’s recent book, “One Billion Hungry: Can we feed the world?” looks at expected increases in hunger in coming decades and addresses the inter-related issues – climate change, food price spikes and a growing population – the world must overcome to maintain the global food supply and prevent a 2050 food crisis as the world’s population grows from 7 billion to an expected 9 billion.

Syria crisis: European countries expected to start arming rebels

Muhannad Hadi, the World Food Programme's regional emergency co-ordinator for Syria and neighbouring countries, said the British donation of armoured cars had already saved the lives of WFP staff delivering food aid on both sides of the lines. (..) The WFP currently supplies food to 1.5 million people in Syria in all 14 of the country's governorates, and in many parts of the country there are pockets with unknown populations which are beyond the agency's reach because of fighting.

South Sudan: WFP Works for a Government-Led School Meals Programme

WFP school meals are helping hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese students stay in school and build a brighter future, and WFP is working to help the young country's Ministry of Education build and sustain a national school meals system.