UNDP-ACT is proud to be supporting ‘The World We Want – Global Civil Society Symposium: Food Security and Nutrition in the Post-2015 Development Framework’, being organized by the Cyprus Island-wide NGO Development Platform (CYINDEP) on Thursday 22 November 2012, 9:30 – 18:00, and Friday 23 November 2012, 9:00 – 13.00, at the Home for Cooperation in Nicosia. The highlight of the event will be a High Level Panel discussion on 23 November, which will be live streamed, starting at 9.00 am Cyprus Time. The aim is to bring decision-makers and agenda-setters from across governments, international organizations, NGOs, academia, think-tanks and the private sector, to exchange views with civil society on eradicating hunger within the post-2015 development agenda. The event will be hosted by Dr Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, Minister for Foreign Affairs for Cyprus. The 8-10 panelists will include EU Commissioners, Ministers, senior UN experts, and civil society representatives. The session will be facilitated by Mr. Simon Maxwell, former Director of the Overseas Development Institute.

The Symposium will address the issues relating to the global challenge of reversing hunger. Today 1 billion people still suffer from hunger and 225 million children under the age of 5 suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition. MDG 1 committed the world to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger – and included halving between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (MDG 1.C). Over the last 20 years there has been significant success on reducing extreme poverty, with the target of cutting it by half reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline – a fall from 47% in 1990 to 24% in 2008. Poverty has declined in all regions to some extent, but much of the overall success is due to economic growth in China. Despite this success, still, in 2015, 1 billion people will live on less than USD 1.25 a day, and 4 out of 5 of these people will reside in sub-Sahara Africa or Southern Asia. 

In June 2012, the UN System Task Team published a report on the post-MDG agenda giving early indications of the thinking within the UN on the development agenda beyond 2015. Nearly all of the ‘aims’ and ‘dimensions’ in the UN System Task Team report affect, and are affected by, food security and nutrition, and many are impossible to attain without progress on in these areas. One of the most important issues may be how to ensure that food security, hunger and nutrition are explicitly highlighted, outlined and prioritised, in any set of new global development objectives. At the same time links between food security and nutrition with other goals is essential. Good examples include ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment are prioritized and that there is policy coherence for development across other issues, especially trade. Lack of progress in these areas will undermine the ability to reach food security and nutrition targets.

For more information about the event please visit www.cyindep.eu/the-world-we-want-cyprus-conference and for the agenda please visit http://www.cyindep.eu/the-world-we-want-cyprus-conference/agenda You can follow the event on Twitter #post2015CY

Click here on Friday 23 November 2012, 9.00am Cyprus time to watch a live stream of the high level panel discussion

For other information on The World We Want 2015 click here