World Food Day 2024: Theme, Significance And Strategies

16-10-2024

World Food Day is celebrated every year on October 16th to raise awareness about hunger and malnutrition around the world. The day commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945. The first World Food Day was held on 16 Oct 1981.

Objectives of World Food Day

World Food Day has several key objectives:

Encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end;
Encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries;
Encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions;
Raise awareness about global hunger.
Promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world; and
Strengthen international and national efforts to combat hunger, malnutrition, and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development.

World Food Day 2024 Theme

Right to foods for a better life and a better future - is the World Food Day theme for 2024. This theme highlights the importance of diverse, nutritious, affordable, and safe food for everyone.

‘Foods’ stands for diversity, nutrition, affordability, and safety. A greater diversity of nutritious foods should be available in our fields, in our markets, and on our tables, for the benefit of all.

The Challenge of Hunger

The world's farmers produce enough food to feed more than the global population yet, hunger persists. Around 733 million people are facing hunger in the world due to repeated weather shocks, conflicts, economic downturns, inequality, and the pandemic.
This impacts the poor and vulnerable most severely, many of whom are agricultural households, reflecting widening inequalities across and within countries.

The Right to food

Food is the third most basic human need after air and water – everyone should have the right to adequate food. Human rights such as the right to food, life and liberty, work and education are recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and two legally binding international covenants.
Over 2.8 billion people in the world are unable to afford a healthy diet. Unhealthy diets are the leading cause of all forms of malnutrition – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity, which now exist in most countries, cutting across socio-economic classes.
Yet today, too many people suffer from hunger and are unable to afford healthy diets. More vulnerable people are often forced to rely on staple foods or less expensive foods that can be unhealthy, while others suffer from the unavailability of fresh or varied foods, lack the information they need to choose a healthy diet, or simply opt for convenience.

Factors Exacerbating Hunger and Malnutrition

Hunger and malnutrition are further exacerbated by protracted or prolonged crises that are driven by a combination of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks.
These crises also disrupt agricultural systems, which are vulnerable to climate change and other environmental challenges.

The Role of Agrifood Systems

Agrifood systems, as a whole, are vulnerable to disasters and crises, particularly the impacts of climate change but at the same time, they are generating pollution, degrading soil, water and air, and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss. By transforming agrifood systems, there is great potential to mitigate climate change and support peaceful, resilient and inclusive livelihoods for all.