Food security and healthy diets for all focus of World Food Day
MUSCAT: Dr Nora Orabah Haddad, Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the Sultanate, said FAO and countries around the world celebrate World Food Day every year on October 16, the day the FAO was founded 74 years ago.
In an interview with Oman News Agency (ONA), Dr Nora said FAO country offices, in collaboration with governments and other partners, commemorate this day in various ways to call for action to end hunger and other forms of malnutrition and ensure food security and healthy diets for all.
She said the theme for this year’s celebration is “our actions are our future: healthy diets for a #Zerohunger world”.
“Achieving Zero Hunger, the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), is not only about addressing hunger, but rather it extends beyond that to nourishing people with healthy, safe and accessible food while nurturing our planet’s natural resources,” Dr Nora said. “This year, FAO also calls for action across sectors to make healthy, safe and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone and calls on everyone to start thinking about what we eat and our current food systems in view to enhancing nutrition.
“Everyone has the right to healthy food, as the most basic human right. In the last decades, significant progress has been achieved globally to produce food. In today’s world, unhealthy diets and malnutrition have become our new “food crisis”. The good news is that affordable solutions exist, but they require greater global commitment and action together,” she added.
Just as in previous years, the FAO office in the Sultanate, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and other partners, is engaged in various activities and events to increase awareness about the importance of healthy and sustainable food systems.
FAO Oman, in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, is organising an event on October 16 focusing on technical presentations and discussions on nutrition and biological diversity.
Dar Al Atta, in collaboration with FAO Oman, took part on October 12 in a food drive event. Additionally, another event is taking place on October 17 with students from one of the primary schools in Muscat to promote healthy eating as a part of an active and healthy lifestyle.
Furthermore, FAO Oman, in collaboration with MAF and Ministry of Education, is organising a national art poster competition for school students on this year’s WFD theme “our actions are our future: healthy diets for a #Zerohunger world”.