Bangkok--24 Oct--AIT
It seemed like a normal lecture by two UN guest experts inside an amphitheater at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. On closer inspection, however, one notices something quite different.
Thanks to the wonders of video conference technology — an International Development Discussion on 16 October 2013 on the United Nations-led ‘Zero Hunger Campaign’ connected students and faculty of Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) with AIT in a cyber-classroom, though 7000 kilometers and 4 times zones apart.
Ms. Yumiko Yamamoto, Programme Specialist, UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre, and Mr. Clovis Freire, Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), spoke on the issue of hunger and introduced elements of the campaign that was first proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations Conference of Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Later, the pair answered students’ questions in person and via the Web.
Despite progress in combatting hunger, one person in eight goes hungry in the world every day, Yamamoto told RMIT and AIT students. In fact, more than 60% of the world’s poor and hungry live in Asia and the Pacific, she said.
Yamamoto, who provides policy and programme advisory services to the UNDP and development partners, stressed the multidimensional nature of hunger. Though the world produces enough food to feed its population of 7 billion-plus people, gaining proper access to food remains a major issue. Disasters and climate change also impact food availability, she said.
Adding a gender perspective, Yamomoto stressed that 60% of the undernourished are women or girls, and persistent gender inequalities remain in Asia and the Pacific.More than 40% of children in several Asia countries are stunted, she added. By reducing maternal hunger and undernutrition, the current intergenerational cycle of undernutrition can and must be broken, she said.
Providing sizeable momentum to solve this problem is the ‘Zero Hunger Challenge’, which is a post-Millennium Development Goals 2015 (MDG) agenda to end global hunger in our lifetime, Mr. Freire explained.
The contributing author of UNESCAP flagship publications, such as the Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific, said the global effort stresses that ending hunger will require that people have universal access to adequate food all year round. It calls for all food systems to be sustainable, and a for a 100 percent increase in smallholder productivity and income. The Challenge has a goal to achieve zero stunted children of less than 2 years of age, and zero loss or waste of food across the globe.
According to the ‘Zero Hunger Challenge’ website: “This requires comprehensive efforts to ensure that every man, woman and child enjoy their right to adequate food; women are empowered; priority is given to family farming; and food systems everywhere are sustainable and resilient.”
The MDG target of halving the percentage of the world’s people suffering from hunger — from the figure of 23% in 1990-1992 — by 2015 is within reach, Freire explained. He added: “All partners need to scale up their efforts to eradicate hunger.”
The Special International Development Conversation was jointly organized at AIT in collaboration with UNDP and RMIT.
Photo shows Mr. Clovis Freire, UNESCAP Economic Affairs Officer, delivering his speech while Ms. Yumiko Yamamoto, Programme Specialist, UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre, looks on.