World Food Day was observed on October 16. This year’s observance of World Food Day follows the landmark adoption by world leaders of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including a set of 17 goals to guide our work towards a future of dignity and prosperity for all on a healthy planet.
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of (FAO) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organisations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
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Meanwhile, the theme for this year’s World Food Day – Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty – highlights the crucial role of cash transfers, insurance, pensions and other social protection programmes in enabling vulnerable people to better manage risks and build profitable livelihoods.
THEMES IN PREVIOUS YEARS
2000: A millennium free from hunger
2001: Fight hunger to reduce poverty
2002: Water: source of food security
2003: Working together for an international alliance against hunger
2004: Biodiversity for food security
2005: Agriculture and intercultural dialogue
2006: Investing in agriculture for food security
2007: The right to food
2008: World food security: the challenges of climate change and bioenergy
2009: Achieving food security in times of crisis
2010: United against hunger
2011: Food prices – from crisis to stability
2012: Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world
2013: Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition
2014: Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth”
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On World Food Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is underlining that “hunger is more than a lack of food—it is a terrible injustice,” while reaffirming the global community’s commitment to work together “to end hunger in our lifetime.”
Sustainable Development Goal 2 summons the global community to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”.
The world has achieved important progress, the proportion of undernourished people has declined by nearly half. At the same time, in a world where nearly a third of all food produced is lost or wasted, and where we produce enough food to feed everyone, almost 800 million people still suffer from hunger.