UN agency to boost Brazil's twin-track Zero Hunger Programme

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today it had signed a $5.8 million agreement with the government of Brazil, strengthening its collaboration and support of the country's twin-track Zero Hunger Programme, which aims to address the root causes of poverty that result in hunger.

"Just ten months after the Programme was launched we are already seeing tangible results," Henri Carsalade, FAO Assistant Director-General for Technical Cooperation, said of the scheme, which has two parallel strategies - an emergency response to provide food for the hungry and a longer-term strategy to improve professional training, reduce poverty and stimulate food production.

"We can already begin to evaluate the Programme's impact not merely in the improved nutritional status of the pilot communities - the most immediate impact - but also through changes in other areas - such as education, health and living conditions," Mr. Carsalade added in a statement released in Rome.

Under the terms of the accord FAO will provide technical assistance in carrying out an evaluation of the successes achieved by the Programme.