FAO-Nobel Peace Laureate Alliance for Zero Hunger Announced FAO Headquaters
Yunus Centre Press Release (12 May 2016)
May 11, FAO, Rome, Italy
Official launch of the FAO Nobel Laureates Alliance for Peace and Food Security by Rome with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Oscar Arias, Betty Williams, Tawakkol Karman and FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva at FAO Headquarters in Rome on May 11, 2016
The FAO-Nobel Laureates Alliance for food security and peace was launched at the headquarters of the FAO in Rome on 11 May 2016.
Five Nobel Peace Laureates and Director General FAO Jose Graziano signed a declaration of the Alliance in an elaborate ceremony in the presence of the ambassadors of member countries at the FAO headquarters in Rome.
Director General of FAO discussed the concept of this Alliance with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and invited him to be a part of this initiative last year. At the launch ceremony he was joined by Nobel Peace Laureates President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, Tawakkkol Karman of Yemen and Betty Williams of Northern Ireland in person and Kofi Annan through his video message.
The landmark initiative is based on the understanding supported by research that there can be no long term peace without food security and no food security without peace.
During the launch ceremony, inaugurated by the Director General of FAO, the laureates committed to working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030.
Professor Yunus, who is also one of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's SDG Advocates, highlighted on how zero hunger and zero malnutrition could be achieved by using the business methodology of social business, powered by endless potential of emerging technology and transforming young people especially from rural areas into entrepreneurs, instead of job seekers. He said the young people are the most innovative generation in history, and stated that they can create the world without poverty and hunger that we all dream of. All we have to do is to free them from the compulsion of searching for jobs to make it the source of their livelihood.
The ceremony ended with the laureates signing a special document , with each laureate putting down their thoughts on the road map to zero hunger and peace.
In the evening Jose Graziano and Professor Yunus addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, presided over by the president of the General assembly, on invitation by him, on the topic of peace and food security. Professor Yunus briefed the General assembly members about the core objective of the FAO-Nobel Laureates Alliance launched earlier in the day and outlined his vision of how peace and zero hunger may be achieved through changing the traditional agriculture and rural economy to attract the youth of the rural areas to stay in the rural area by transforming rural areas into vibrant economies through their entrepreneurship and compete with urban areas. Technology and social business will make it easy to happen. He suggested that old concepts and institutions have to be redesigned to create a new world of zero hunger and zero malnutrition. Workd has the ability to do it, he said, all we need is the right concepts and institutions to deliver it.