December 13, 2024 15:26 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
French President Macron appoints centrist leader Francois Bayrou as new Prime Minister | Congress always prioritised personal interest over Constitution: Rajnath Singh | Jaishankar calls attack on Hindus in Bangladesh 'a source of concern' | Allu Arjun arrested over woman's death in stampede during Pushpa 2 premiere show | RBI receives bomb threat in Russian language, case filed | UP teenager kills mother, lives with body for 5 days | At least six people including a child killed in Tamil Nadu hospital fire | Amid Atul Subhash row, SC says mere harassment is not enough to prove abetment to suicide | India's D Gukesh becomes youngest ever world champion in chess | Devendra Fadnavis meets PM Modi amid suspense over Maharashtra portfolio allocation

New UN Decade aims to eradicate hunger, prevent malnutrition

| | Apr 05, 2016, at 01:22 pm
New York, Apr 5 (Just Earth News/IBNS): Calling attention to the nearly 800 million chronically undernourished people and over two billion with micronutrient deficiencies, the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2015 the start of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted a consensus resolution on Friday, calling on the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to lead the implementation of the Decade.

In a press release welcoming the decision, FAO called the document “a major step towards mobilizing action around reducing hunger and improving nutrition around the world.”

The UN agencies, in addition to working with national governments, will collaborate with the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and involve coordination mechanisms such as the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) and multi-stakeholder platforms such as the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

Among other topics to be focused on during the Decade will be assistance to the some 159 million children under the age of five who are stunted, meaning too short for their age, and the approximate 50 million in that age bracket who are wasted, or have a low weight for their height.

Meanwhile, around the world, about 1.9 billion people are overweight, of whom 600 million are obese.

"This resolution places nutrition at the heart of sustainable development and recognizes improving food security and nutrition are essential to achieving the entire 2030 Agenda," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said.

"Children can't fully reap the benefits of schooling if they don't get the nutrients they need; and emerging economies won't reach their full potential if their workers are chronically tired because their diets are unbalanced. That's why we welcome the Decade of Action on Nutrition and look forward to helping make it a success," he added.

Photo: FAO/Justin Jin
 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia Mar 22, 2023, at 08:26 pm