SI UN Representative in Rome attends FAO Committee on Food Security Session

SI UN representative to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Cinzia Palmi, recently attended the 36^th Committee on Food Security.

The session was attended by delegates from 123 members of the Committee, 11 participants from UN Agencies and programs and 46 INGOS. The President of the Republic of Rwanda, Mr. Paul Kagame, was the guest of honor.

The Committee agreed:

• Global hunger is unacceptably high and must be reduced;
• That recent extreme weather events in different parts of the world may jeopardize further projects;
• To encourage interested stakeholders to participate in the future development of the initiative at country level;
• To reach the more vulnerable through social and productive safety nets, programs and policies related to food and nutritional security, taking into consideration the different conditions across the countries and regions.

In addition to this, the Session included 10 side events. The most important ones were: a presentation of the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Mechanism; strategies around land grabbing; the role of women in agriculture organized by WOCAN (which Cinzia attended); food for cities; NGO/CSO meeting “Actions against hunger” where Cinzia spoke on behalf of SI.

On October 15^th, SI was invited to take part in a World Food Day Panel on the 1 Billion Hungry campaign. Cinzia delivered a statement detailing the work of Soroptimists on the campaign using examples from all over the world. Only seven representatives of the CSO were called by FAO to report on the evolution of the 1BH Campaign so this was a huge honor for SI and shows that our work is respected by the FAO.

Action that Soroptimists can take:

This is what the CFS recommends must happen in order to tackle the current crisis:

·         We must continue to support the 1 Billion Hungry Campaign, which ends on Nov. 29;

·         We must strengthen and maintain the linkages with relevant actors at all levels and ensure that our work is based on the reality on the ground;

·         We must support mechanisms for stronger partnerships and collaboration with regional institutions to increase collaborative efforts and deal with food and nutrition security;

·         We have to transform intentions into actions, because the level of hunger is still too high;

·          We have to encourage initiatives such as micro credit and it is particularly important to identify the best investments aimed at protecting women in agriculture, their access to markets and their right to the land;

·         We must seek partnerships and coordinate actions amongst ourselves and other organisations in order to make a difference.

Please visit the members section of the SI website to read the full report and Cinzia’s statement.