World hunger is on the rise due to climate change – Guterres warns

António Guterres – UN Secretary-General

The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has raised warnings about growing world hunger, noting that Africa is suffering the highest levels.

According to a press release issued by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, Mr Guterres who was speaking on the margins of the African Union Summit under the theme “Renewed Partnership to End Hunger in African by 2025 – Five Years Later: Taking Stock of Progress and Lessons in Light of the Sustainable Development Goals,” said agriculture and livestock production have come under threat from conflict and climate change.

“Climatic shocks, environmental degradation, crop and livestock price collapse and conflict are all interlinked,” he said.

Mr. Guterres urged governments to adopt national agricultural policies and investment plans that focus not only on agricultural sector development but on poverty, hunger, and resilience to climate change, the release said.

“Climate change adaptation should be promoted as an integral part of conflict prevention, with special attention to sustainable agriculture and pastoralist and semi-pastoralist livelihoods. It is important to highlight that the majority of undernourished people in Africa live in countries affected by conflict,” he said.

Mr. Guterres indicated further that that sustainable and inclusive agricultural growth was vital to achieve both SDG1 on poverty and SDG2 on hunger and that it also influences many other goals.  

Citing the FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, the release quoted him as saying, “Hunger-fighting initiatives in Africa need to be deepened and broadened to put the continent back on track to eliminating the scourge of undernutrition. Achieving zero hunger in our lifetime is still possible.”

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, was reported to have said his government has made significant progress in fighting hunger.  

“In recent years we have managed to overcome food security challenges by increasing our domestic purchasing power” and that their use of “indigenous approaches” will continue until goal of zero hunger is achieved,” he said.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

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