World Food Day WFP Appeals for Global Effort to End Conflict, Climate Change and Other Obstacles to Zero Hunger (For the Media)

MILAN – Speaking today at World Food Day events in Italy, Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, appealed to the entire global community to take action and help to ensure that the world achieves #ZeroHunger. She invited everyone to mark World Food Day by posting #ZeroHunger on social media. No one individual or organization owns #ZeroHunger, which is the goal we share and the world we want. WFP encourages people to join a new community Facebook page and switch their profile page to highlight a striking white circle representing the target of Zero Hunger. According to The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 report, 795 million people suffer from hunger today, down 167 million from a decade ago. To speed up progress and save countless lives and build stronger futures by 2030, it would take an annual investment of US$265 billion – about 0.3 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product. The economic benefit of ending hunger, however, is calculated to be worth about 5 percent of global GDP.