Each day 66 million primary school-aged children across the developing world attend classes hungry.? Poor nutrition causes 45 per cent of deaths in children under age five - that's 3.1 million children each year.? Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. ?1
Food insecurity and hunger have been called the silent tsunami, a wave that leaves 795 million people, 1 in 9 worldwide, chronically malnourished. Hunger is not an isolated problem, but rather one strand in a set of intertwined issues that impact the global community.? According to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth ... these are one and the same fight.? We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment.? Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.?
It is time to rethink how we grow, share and consume food. If done right, agriculture, forestry and fisheries can provide nutritious food for all and generate decent incomes, while supporting people-centered rural development and protecting the environment.? Sustainable Development Goal #2 - to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture - recognizes the linkages between supporting sustainable agriculture, empowering small farmers, promoting gender equality, ending rural poverty, ensuring healthy lifestyles, tackling climate change and other issues included in the 2030 Development Agenda.
To further explore these connections Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in collaboration?with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the University of Roma Tor Vergata, has developed a one week program on 'Poverty and Food Security' to review the factors that contribute to food insecurity including rural poverty, access to credit, environmental shocks and climate change, access to water, land and capital and economic shocks, followed by an analysis of ways and means to reduce poverty and eradicate hunger.
The course will be held at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid at the Getafe Campus in Madrid, Spain and the application deadline is 24 June 2016.? For further information please contact carlos3is@uc3m.es or visit
1?FAO ¨C