The “Hunger – Nutrition – Climate Justice” conference, organized in partnership between the Irish Government, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the World Food Programme (WFP), begins today in Dublin.
The event is unique in the way it aims to explore the links between climate change, hunger and nutrition, whilst placing farmers at the center of the of the development efforts to help solve the problems of food insecurity. It aims to do this by enabling global leaders, policy-makers and scientists to listen directly to the representatives of communities from Africa, Asia and Central America.
Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium commented, “This meeting is an opportunity to put food security through climate smart agriculture at the top of the political agenda. While doing so, we want to make sure our research agendas continue the G8’s commitment to the world’s poor. We must focus on the needs of smallholder farmers – they have the least capacity to adapt and will be the most affected by climate change.”
Conference delegates will seek to couple farmers’ traditional knowledge and adaptation practices with scientific innovations to reduce hunger, improve nutrition and help communities to adapt to climate change. Listening to the voices of those on the ground will be vital in providing recommendations to shape the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. High profile representatives from around the world who will listen to these viewpoints will include former US Vice President Al Gore, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, Mary Robinson, President of Mary Robinson Foundation and Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
To optimise the input of stakeholders from around the world, Mr Rijsberman, will host a panel discussion entitled ‘Starting the Dialogue: Reality Check’ on Tuesday April 16th. This session will ensure that farmers voices are heard by high level representatives and will include a live voting device to ensure everyone has a say in issues discussed.
Explaining the remit of CCAFS in relation to the Conference, Mr Rijsberman continued: “Climate change affects future food and nutrition security worldwide, imposing new challenges to the agriculture sector and our future food and nutrition security. At the same time, agriculture is a net-emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, further exasperating visible climatic changes. Through its comprehensive research, CCAFS aims to provide the agriculture sector with practices, technologies and strategies that can help farmers in developing countries to adapt to climate change, whilst both managing the risks from an increasingly variable climate on food production and mitigating some of the emissions in a pro-poor fashion”.
It is expected that “Hunger – Nutrition – Climate Justice 2013” will generate a number of clear recommendations about steps that need to be taken to support vulnerable households as the world reviews the UN Millennium Development Goals.
The Conference is supported by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).
Global leaders and policy-makers attending the event include:
- President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins
- Frank Rijsberman, Chief Executive Officer of the CGIAR Consortium
- President of the Mary Robinson Foundation, Mary Robinson,
- Former US Vice-President, Al Gore
- Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic partnership of CGIAR and Future Earth, led by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). CCAFS brings together the world’s best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and Earth system science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. To find out more visit:
More information:
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
Dublin Conference Overview (official conference website)
Watch the conference live-streamed (eu2013.ie)
Photo credit: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Wow. This is a really inspiring conference. I’m sure very vital points will be duly noted to help tackle the problem of malnutrition in developing nations of the world. How i wish I can attend. Nevertheless, i’ll watch the live-stream. Well done.
Thanks for the encouraging remarks! You might wish to visit this CCAFS page http://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/tags/hncj which is a collection of blogs that were related to this event.