UN agency strikes cooperation deal with European Commission to fight hunger

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) signed an agreement today with the European Commission to work more closely together to achieve one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eradicating the extreme hunger and poverty that persists in the developing world.

With an estimated 840 million people worldwide suffering from chronic hunger or under-nourishment, the agreement should help reduce that pool and encourage more agriculture and development in poorer countries. The areas targeted include food security, sustainable rural development, food safety and quality and natural resources management.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said “partnerships such as this one are essential if we are to meet the target agreed at the World Food Summit and enshrined in the UN Millennium Development Goals.”

At the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, delegates pledged to try to reduce the number of undernourished people by half by 2015, while one of the MDGs, which were agreed at a UN summit in 2000, calls for having the number of hungry people, also by 2015.

Since the FAOand the Commission began formally cooperating in 1991, they have teamed up to complete 116 projects – mostly in food security, forestry, agriculture and fisheries – to the value of €108 million (euros), or about $131 million.