‘Policy actions needed against hunger and malnutrition’

Islamabad : Promoting awareness and boosting evidence-based policy actions for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure healthy diets for everyone is vital to tackling global challenges of hunger and malnutrition, special assistant to the prime minister on climate change Malik Amin Aslam.

In a World Food Day message, the premier's aide said one in nine people in the world didn't have enough to eat for various reasons and many slept without having adequate food for normal healthy living.

He said achieving zero hunger by 2030 was possible if the world joined forces for global action against global hunger.

Malik Amin said as countries continued to deal with the widespread effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Food Day 2020 had come an opportunity to highlight how food and agriculture were an integral part of the COVID-19 response.

He said the COVID-19 crisis had been a time to ponder over things we truly treasure and our most basic needs for sustainability of lives and the world as whole.

"These uncertain times of the pandemic have indeed made many of us rekindle our appreciation for a thing that some take for granted and many go to bed without it: food,” he said.

The prime minister's special assistant said food was the essence of life and the bedrock of cultures and communities.

"Preserving access to safe and nutritious food is and will continue to be an essential part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for poor and vulnerable communities, who are hit hardest by the pandemic and resulting economic shocks,” he said.

He urged the global community to enhance global cooperation and solidarity to help the most vulnerable to recover from the crisis.

He also called for the making of food systems more resilient and robust to withstand the COVID-19 related volatility and fallouts of climate change and deliver healthy and sustainable diets for all. Malik Amin said food waste was another challenge to the global efforts aimed at tackling hunger and malnutrition.

“Tackling this challenge of food waste at a time when climate change is already adversely affecting food production systems is vital to global efforts for food security,” he said.