FAO chief meets Dr Yunus in Rome
The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Jose Graziano da Silva recently met Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus where they stressed links between tackling violence and hunger marking the UN International Day of Non-Violence on October 2.
"Violence and conflict are the main cause of hunger nowadays in the world," said Graziano da Silva during a meeting in Rome with Yunus in FAO's Alliance of Nobel Laureates to Resist Hunger.
"We need peace to have food security," he added.
The number chronically undernourished people has continued to rise over the past three years, da Silva also stressed.
Income-generating opportunities particularly for women and youth in rural areas are needed to eliminate these scourges, da Silva and Yuus underlined at their meeting said FAO in a statement.
"Violence is creating a problem of poverty, a problem of hunger, migration and famine," said Yunus.
"Our way of looking at it is to bring opportunities for people to help them stand on their own feet," said Dr Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank.
Yunus said that support for rural entrepreneurship should lie at the heart of solutions to hunger and instability.
Graziano da Silva and Yunus also highlighted the importance of redoubling efforts create greater awareness of the growing link between conflict and hunger by strengthening collaboration between the UN agency and the FAO-Nobel Peace Laureates Alliance.
