Discorso pronunciato dall’Ambasciatrice Mariangela Zappia, Rappresentante Permanente dell’Italia presso le Nazioni Unite, all’Evento sul Lancio del Report 2019 sullo Stato della Sicurezza Alimentare e della Nutrizione nel Mondo (SOFI) a nome del Gruppo di Amici sulla Sicurezza Alimentare e la Nutrizione. —
Madam Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
Madam President of the General Assembly,
Mr. Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization,
Mr. President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development,
Mr. Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP),
Madam Executive Director of the UN International Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
Excellencies, Distinguished colleagues,
I am honored to take the floor in my capacity of Chair of the Group of Friends on Food Security and Nutrition, a wide, informal and cross-regional constituency of UN Member States, which advocate for constant and active commitment – at national, regional and global level – in pursuing SDG2 and its related targets.
On behalf of this group of Friends, I really want to thank all the panelists for your commitment and for working together, I wish to take this opportunity to bid farewell to Jose’ Graziano da Silva and to thank him for what he has done now that it is approaching the end of his mandate.
We also seek to work with the Director General Elect of the FAO, Qu Dongyu, and recognize the importance of enhancing cooperation between New York and Rome-based agencies to address the root causes of food security and nutrition, we believe this is also a key factor for achieving SDG2.
We commend the launch, here in New York, of the report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 (SOFI)”. As Group of Friends, we advocate for the relevance of food security and nutrition in our discussions here in New York and today’s event can certainly give a new momentum to our endeavor.
This year, the SOFI report 2019, by going beyond hunger and addressing the constraints to food access that likely affect nutritional quality of the diet, also offers a wider scope for the activity of this Group of Friends.
As Chair of this Group of Friends, I can assure you that we will work constructively to promote access to food and healthy diets with a holistic approach, in line with the main theme of the FAO for the period 2020-2021 ‘Promoting healthy diets and preventing all forms of malnutrition’.
