FAO, Italy join forces for SDG 2 on zero hunger

07 / 08 / 2019

• Sustainable Development

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Italy agreed to join hands to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 1 on Zero Hunger as well as eradicating malnutrition.

FAO’s new Director General Qu Dongyu had talks on Tuesday with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on ways of furthering bilateral cooperation to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Qu stressed the importance of Italy’s collaboration with FAO, in particular on achieving Zero Hunger and eradicating malnutrition, and underscored his desire to build on the Italy-FAO strategic partnership during his four-year mandate as Director-General.

Italy ranks as one of FAO’s largest resource partners and the Director-General welcomed Italy’s growing commitment to support FAO financially in several key areas, such as nutrition, migration and healthy diets, as well as joint efforts to address food security, especially in Africa.

Looking ahead, both sides committed to collaborating on various multilateral events, inter alia, Italy’s Presidency of the G-20 in 2021, which the Director General described as an excellent opportunity to promote initiatives stemming from FAO’s mandate.

Qu expressed his commitment to ensure for FAO to continue working together with the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program (WFP) on topics related to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to reinforce the UN food hub in Rome.

He also posted the premier on FAO’s plans to organize a UN Summit on Food Systems in 2021 in tandem with IFAD and WFP.