United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants to anchor the global agency’s food and nutrition security initiatives on a rights-based approach to food.
The right to food “is one of the keys to halving global hunger, the first Millennium Development Goal, which in turn can have a multiplier effect across all our development goals,” Ban told participants to the Committee on World Food Security’s meeting.
The weeklong gathering in Rome will tackle issues such as land tenure, international investment in agriculture, and food security during crises.
“I look forward to watching the committee evolve and address issues such as the support for smallholder farmers, land acquisition, the interests of women, nutrition, price volatility, climate change and, in particular, the establishment of food trading systems that work without destabilizing markets,” Ban said.
The committee’s secretariat is made up of three U.N. agencies, namely the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Program.
