Today, on the 25th of Mehr 1394 (17 October 2015), the Representation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in the Islamic Republic of Iran observed World Food Day at a Conference convened in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture and the Confederation of the Iranian Food Industry Associations.

World Food Day was established by FAO's member states to raise awareness of the scourges of hunger and rural poverty. Every year, on the date of the founding of the Organization, namely the 16th of October, people around the world come together on this day to declare their commitment to eradicate hunger in our lifetime.
This year’s World Food Day holds a particular significance since it marks the 70th Anniversary of FAO. 70 years on since the establishment of this global specialized agency, we indeed have a number of achievements to commemorate. A majority of countries monitored by the organization – 72 out of the 129 – have achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the prevalence of undernourishment in their populations by 2015. Meanwhile, the share of people in developing regions who live in extreme poverty has come down significantly – from 43% in 1990 to 17% this year.
Despite these notable achievements, there is still a lot to be done. Progress has been uneven amongst countries and regions and today around 800 million people still suffer from hunger, whilst almost one billion people continue to live in extreme poverty. The UN Global Development Summit last September committed itself to the new Global Agenda for Sustainable Development with the aim of eradicating hunger by 2030. And investing in agriculture still remains the most effective way to lift people out of poverty in rural areas.
The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 published by FAO earlier this year indicated that in poor countries, social protection schemes such as cash transfers, school feeding and public works offer an economical way to provide vulnerable people with opportunities to move out of extreme poverty and hunger and to improve their children's health, education and life chances. Such programmes currently benefit 2.1 billion people in developing countries in various ways including keeping 150 million people out of extreme poverty. Expanding such programmes in rural areas and linking them to inclusive agricultural growth policies would rapidly reduce the number of poor people.
World Food Day 2015 focuses on “Social Protection and Agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty”. In selecting this theme, global attention is being drawn to the significant role that can be played by social protection in eradicating hunger and poverty, as well as in paving a sustainable path towards food security and development for all, when it is prioritized in national development agendas.
Without social protection coverage, many poor and vulnerable people will never have the opportunity to break out of the poverty trap in which hunger, illness and lack of education perpetuate poverty for future generations. Substantial income supplements, mostly provided by social protection programmes, would, along with other targeted pro-poor investments in agriculture, allow for the eradication of hunger by 2030.

Currently many extremely poor households are forced to sell off productive assets, put children to work, over-exploit their small landholdings unsustainably, or settle for badly paid jobs. Basic social transfer schemes can offer the poor an opportunity to improve their own productive potential. They also have positive effects on local economies, increasing business opportunities, raising rural wages, and allowing the poorest to acquire or invest in assets. At least 145 countries today provide one or more forms of social assistance, including unconditional cash transfers, meaning outright grants for eligible recipients, conditional cash transfers, usually linked to school attendance or health checkups and, public-works programmes that offer guaranteed employment. Other forms of social assistance include in-kind transfers, including food distribution and school feeding programmes.

Social protection strengthens livelihoods and encourages farm and non-farm activities, by helping households overcome credit and liquidity constraints. Social protection in the form of public works programmes can also provide important infrastructure and community assets. Poor and vulnerable households typically face multiple constraints and risks and rural livelihoods can be improved through joint agriculture and social protection initiatives.
However, social protection alone cannot sustainably eradicate hunger and rural poverty. It is important to combine and coordinate public investment in social protection with both public and private investments in the productive sectors of agriculture and rural development. Such actions will ensure inclusive economic growth as a sustainable way to break the cycle of rural poverty.

Our mission here in the Islamic Republic of Iran is to reduce poverty, preserve the environment and contribute to the growth of the Iranian economy through increased sustainable agricultural production and rural development.

FAO is covering a broad spectrum of activities that would seek to empower rural communities in the aim of providing a sustainable solution to their hardships. Empowering the rural population economically and enhancing their livelihood will undoubtedly contribute, on the one hand, to the reduction of rural poverty, preservation of the environment and the growth of the country’s economy through an injection of both a more skilled labour force to the rural sector and human capital that supports strengthened agricultural production. In this respect, it is important that we adapt and implement defined plans for sustainable alternative livelihood options that assure socio-economic and environmental benefits, sustaining ecosystem services and providing them ultimately with an opportunity to possess the requisite capacity to improve their lives. It will also enable them to play a greater role in dealing with local environmental and economic challenges in a holistic, integrated as well as sustainable manner that reinforce social cohesion and improve relations amongst these communities.

Agro-ecology and climate-smart agriculture provide alternative viable options to sustainably increase food production, whilst addressing climate change, and building resilience, benefitting small-scale and family farmers in particular.
The fast economic development in Iran in recent decades has compromised the security of water, energy and food resources in parallel. A number of climate-extreme events in the past two decades, specifically severe droughts that are possibly linked to climate change, have also imposed significant pressure on water resources across the country. FAO is launching its integrated strategic programme for sustainable water resources management & governance through a Water-Food-Energy-Climate Nexus approach. This approach ensures that water; food; energy and climate are all integrated into the planning and management of the core cross-sectoral national and local development programmes. Because of the serious nature of the water scarcity situation in the country, Iran has been placed as a focus country in FAO’s Regional Water Scarcity Initiative as of 2016.
FAO considers the Private Sector to be a key ally in the fight against hunger. This sector has been instrumental in transforming the governance of food and agriculture on a global level by new technological, knowledge-based, financial and managerial resources and innovation. Effective engagement with the private sector can help the fight against hunger and malnutrition by enhancing FAO’s work in agriculture, fishery, forestry, natural resource management, and the strengthening of the food production value chain from farmer to consumer.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate FAO’s commitment to collaborate and work in partnership with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, together with other agencies of the UN system, the private sector and other donors and partners, to promote joint efforts aimed at achieving the new development targets of the 2030 Development Agenda and notably in terms of eliminating hunger, dispelling poverty, enhancing agricultural productivity, building greater resilience, mitigating the impacts of climate change and safeguarding natural resources as well as the environment.

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FAO’s mission in Iran is to reduce poverty, preserve the environment and contribute to the growth of the Iranian economy through increased sustainable agricultural production and rural development.

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Iran has been placed as a focus country in FAO’s Regional Water Scarcity Initiative as of 2016