Hunger, obesity and Haiti top issues for FAO summit
DECISIONS COMING out of the 35th regional conference of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), set for the Montego Bay Conference Centre in St James from next Monday, March 5, to Thursday, March 8, will have farreaching i mplications for Jamaica and the region.
While food security and nutrition will be the core of all talks, these will extend beyond agricultural systems, food distribution and trade for the host country. The summit will examine in detail, practical steps for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations which Jamaica has signed on to and is trying to achieve.
The 33 member countries of FAO in the region will use the occasion to develop an agenda to fight hunger and malnutrition, build a future without r ural pover ty, and transform agriculture to be sustainable and resilient to climate change.
ALARMING REALITIES
This is in recognition of the alarming reality that in the Latin America and the Caribbean:
■ Hunger is growing and obesity has become an epidemic.
■ Climate change threatens agriculture.
■ Millions of people in rural areas live in extreme poverty.
There are three thematic areas that ministers of agriculture, education, social protection, health, environment, planning and finance will be discussing against the background of the Caribbean Strategic Plan, which was developed for 2016 and 2017 which looked at several issues.
Dr Gillian Smith, acting FAO country representative for Jamaica, Belize and The Bahamas, used a consultation workshop at The Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, last Wednesday to drive home the urgency and importance of the conference.
“Over 40 per cent of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean who live in rural areas are in extreme poverty. This is after decades of discussions and efforts to pull people out of pover ty, we still have a rural development issue and Jamaica is not different from any of the other countries in that respect,” she lamented.
‘Over 40 per cent of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean who live in rural areas are in extreme poverty. This is after decades of discussions and efforts to pull people out of poverty, we still have a rural development issue’