26 April 2021, Rome – Addressing the 166
th Session of the FAO Council today, Director-General QU Dongyu highlighted the ways the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been providing constant support to Members, including to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each of the decisions, activities and results shared with Council today are “not an isolated exercise, but part of an interlinked chain of progress,” he said.
Alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director-General noted that “we are witnessing the scale of the long-term effects on agri-food systems, food security and nutrition situations around the world,” pointing to adverse trends such as increasing food prices, the suspension of school meals in many parts of the world, restrictions on selling food in public urban places, jobs at risk in the processing and distribution sectors, and negative impacts in incomes, especially for rural households in mostly agricultural
A Handbook For Parliamentarians On Food Systems And Nutrition
Writing in the Handbook s foreword, D-G FAO and IPU Secretary General have noted how COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the weakness of our food systems.
Representational image. Apr 22, 2021
Aimed at providing lawmakers with practical guidance on legislative processes that prioritize nutrition, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has published a new Handbook for Parliamentarians, entitled Food Systems and Nutrition .
The online Handbook was produced in collaboration with the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF) and the African Union Development Agency s New Partnership for Africa s Development (AUDA-NEPAD).
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Latin America and Caribbean are “pillar for world food security”
16 April 2021, Rome/Lima – Latin America and the Caribbean “are truly a pillar for world food security,” QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said Thursday in an address to more than 30 ministers from the region and North America.
Addressing the Third Hemispheric Meeting of Ministers and Secretaries of Agriculture of the Americas, the Director-General hailed the region’s contribution to preventing the COVID-19 health crisis from becoming a food crisis. “Now you need to be the architects of recovery, a recovery with transformation,” he urged.
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FAO Director-General QU Dongyu designates European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet FAO Goodwill Ambassador
12 April 2021, Rome – European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet was named Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Goodwill Ambassador today, the International Day of Human Space Flight.
Pesquet will help FAO raise awareness about the importance of transforming the world’s agri-food systems, making them more resilient, inclusive, efficient and sustainable to overcome the challenges of persisting and growing hunger, and preserving the planet’s environment and biodiversity.
With hunger on the rise – almost 690 million people go hungry and COVID-19 could push up to 132 million more into hunger (latest estimates), business as usual is no longer an option, the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu noted while conferring the title to Pesquet.
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Signs of hope in East Africa, as control campaign tames locust upsurge
In this Q&A interview, FAO Senior Desert Locust Forecaster Keith Cressman and Cyril Ferrand, Manager of FAO’s Desert Locust response in East Africa, discuss progress made in containing the threat posed by the voracious pest in East Africa.
What is the locust situation in East Africa right now?
Cressman: At the moment, swarms are declining rapidly across the Horn of Africa thanks to the large-scale control operations mounted by governments and supported by FAO over the past 14 months and poor rains.
Swarms in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia remain immature and continue to become smaller. Without rainfall, they will not mature and breed. The upcoming rainy season that is expected to be drier than normal should contribute to a further decline in locusts.