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UN / FAO SOFI
STORY: UN / FAO SOFI
TRT: 03:33
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 JULY 2019, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
15 JULY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
2. Med shot, dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) José Graziano da Silva, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“Two billion people. This is the highest number that I’ve ever in my life. And I am in this business for a long time. And what that means, that let’s say, if we talk about 7 to 8 billion people in the world, a quarter to 30 percent are not sure that they will have enough money to feed themselves or their family.”
4. Wide shot, dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We know if we can address food security we mitigate the issues of migration, school issues, and the list goes on. So, this is not just some small issue, this is the number one issue on earth today. Food security. Failure to address it, there will be global consequences.”
6. Wide shot, dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilbert F. Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
“So, what next? A question that in the past three, four years, that since 2015 the situation is getting worse, what have we done, or what should we be doing now looking forward. This is what I would like to draw the attention for all of us. And clearly, we need as multilateral institutions, as bilateral institutions, as national authorities, etcetera, civil society, private sector, we need to look at what do we do in addition to what we have been doing.”
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. Zoom out, end of presser
10. Wide shot, conference room
11. Wide shot, audience
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina Jane Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Around the world hunger is on the rise, and that’s the sad news, with significant implications for food security, nutrition, and public health. But as we’ve heard in the past three years the number of people who suffered from hunger has increased to more than 820 million people, and the report highlights regions such as Africa in particular, which is facing the highest prevalence of undernourishment at 20 percent, while Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Western Asia are also showing a continuous increase. And it’s linked in part to climate change. Globally temperatures are rising, and extreme weather and climate events are becoming much more frequent and severe. And it underscores the immense challenge to achieving zero hunger by 2030.”
13. Wide shot, conference room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF:
“We simply cannot afford to lose out on the human capital that these children represent because of poor nutrition, which is why we must adopt a life-course approach to nutrition from the earliest days. Nutritional support for pregnant women, breastfeeding for newborns, regulations around food labeling, food standards for schools, national food guidelines, poverty reduction programmes that take good nutrition into account, advocacy programmes to promote healthy diets that limit the consumption of harmful fats, salts, and sugars, and change the public education and change food systems for fresh, diverse food for all.”
15. Wide shot, conference room
After decades of steady decline, the trend in world hunger – as measured by the prevalence of undernourishment – reverted in 2015, remaining virtually unchanged in the past three years at a level slightly below 11 percent, according to the new edition of the The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI).
Considering all people in the world affected by moderate levels of food insecurity together with those who suffer from hunger, it is estimated that over 2 billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food, including 8 percent of the population in Northern America and Europe.
At a press conference for the launch of the report, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, said, “two billion people. This is the highest number that I’ve ever in my life. And I am in this business for a long time. And what that means, that let’s say, if we talk about 7 to 8 billion people in the world, a quarter to 30 percent are not sure that they will have enough money to feed themselves or their family.”
The Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, said, “we know if we can address food security we mitigate the issues of migration, school issues, and the list goes on. So, this is not just some small issue, this is the number one issue on earth today. Food security. Failure to address it, there will be global consequences.”
For his part, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said, “So, what next? A question that in the past three, four years, that since 2015 the situation is getting worse, what have we done, or what should we be doing now looking forward. This is what I would like to draw the attention for all of us. And clearly, we need as multilateral institutions, as bilateral institutions, as national authorities, etcetera, civil society, private sector, we need to look at what do we do in addition to what we have been doing.”
Hunger is on the rise in almost all African subregions, making Africa the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, at almost 20 percent. Hunger is also slowly rising in Latin America and the Caribbean, although its prevalence is still below 7 percent. In Asia, Western Asia shows a continuous increase since 2010, with more than 12 percent of its population undernourished today.
At an earlier event presenting the report, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said,
“around the world hunger is on the rise, and that’s the sad news, with significant implications for food security, nutrition, and public health.”
Mohammed said the increase in world hunger is “linked in part to climate change. Globally temperatures are rising, and extreme weather and climate events are becoming much more frequent and severe. And it underscores the immense challenge to achieving zero hunger by 2030.”
This year’s report introduces a second indicator for monitoring SDG Target 2.1 the Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). While severe food insecurity is associated with the concept of hunger, people experiencing moderate food insecurity face uncertainties about their ability to obtain food and have been forced to compromise on the quality and/or quantity of the food they consume.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore said, “we simply cannot afford to lose out on the human capital that these children represent because of poor nutrition, which is why we must adopt a life-course approach to nutrition from the earliest days. Nutritional support for pregnant women, breastfeeding for newborns, regulations around food labeling, food standards for schools, national food guidelines, poverty reduction programmes that take good nutrition into account, advocacy programmes to promote healthy diets that limit the consumption of harmful fats, salts, and sugars, and change the public education and change food systems for fresh, diverse food for all.”
One in seven newborns, or 20.5 million babies globally, suffered from low birthweight in 2015; no progress has been made in reducing low birthweight since 2012. The number of children under five years in the world affected by stunting, by contrast, has decreased by 10 percent in the past six years. However, with 149 million children still stunted, the pace of progress is too slow to meet the 2030 target of halving the number of stunted children.
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