Rome, 13 July 2000.-"A Millennium Free from Hunger" will be the theme of
this year's World Food Day to be observed on October 16, the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.
The agency called for immediate action to eliminate the underlying causes
of chronic hunger, a global problem that now affects about 800 million people
worldwide.
The theme of World Food Day 2000 invokes both a vision and a challenge. The
vision is to achieve the objective of ensuring food for all during the new
millennium. The challenge is to make the vision a reality.
To free the new millennium from hunger, urgent action must be taken on many
fronts not just to provide food for the hungry but to permanently eliminate
the problem. According to FAO, ending hunger will require, among other things,
increasing agricultural productivity, raising the incomes of rural communities,
improving access to food and ensuring that developing countries participate
fairly in global trade.
Hunger not only cuts short the lives and hopes of individuals but the peace
and prosperity of nations. Studies suggest that hunger and micronutrient
deficiencies decrease children's learning capacity by up to 10 per cent and
cost developing countries up to US$ 128 billion per year in productivity
losses alone, according to FAO.
The latest figures show that the number of hungry people was reduced by 8
million per year during the first half of the 1990's. This is less than half
the rate needed to reach the goal set by the 1996 World Food Summit of reducing
the number of hungry people by half by the year 2015. If this trend persists,
nearly 700 million people will still suffer from chronic hunger in the year
2015, FAO underlined.
Each year on World Food Day, FAO focuses its efforts to promote broader public
awareness of the global problem of hunger and malnutrition. World Food Day
2000 will be marked by a traditional ceremony at FAO headquarters while
awareness-raising events will be organized in some 150 countries. At the
Rome ceremony, a key-note address focusing on progress in combating hunger
and malnutrition will be delivered by a prominent personality. A special
World Food Day ceremony will also be held at the United Nations in New York.
On the same day, a number of new "FAO Ambassadors" will be nominated to
participate in the Telefood campaign against world hunger. The Ambassadors,
chosen from among celebrities from the worlds of science, sports and the
arts, will express public support for FAO's fight to break the vicious circle
of chronic hunger and undernourishment.
Last year, for the first time, FAO nominated four Ambassadors. These were:
Nobel Prize laureate Rita Levi Montalcini, Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida,
American jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and South African singer Miriam
Makeba.
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For further information on World Food Day, please contact FAO's media relations
branch (tel. 0039.06.57052232) or consult:
http://www.fao.org/wfd/wfd2000-e.htm
