World Food Day: UN chief calls hunger “terrible injustice”

Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, marked World Food Day on Friday by calling hunger "a terrible injustice" and addressed global food security and nutrition at the Milan Expo.

Ban was speaking at the Milan Expo World's Fair and called for "food security for all the people around the world to build a global movement to end hunger".

The UN chief was joined by Italian President Sergio Mattarella and was presented with the Milan Charter, with more than one million signatories over the six months of the fair, containing commitments to boost global food and water security.

The Milan Charter is designed to support the UN Sustainable Development Goal to eliminate hunger by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals were finalised by world leaders in September at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Ban emphasised the role of individuals in eradicating hunger, and urged participants to "capture the spirit of Expo Milan and continue to fight against hunger".

Kanayo Nwanze, president of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said: "The difference is that the Milan Charter is rallying ordinary people… It gives ordinary people a chance to have a voice and to recognise the issues."

The Milan Expo 2015 celebrated World Food Day on the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 16 October, 1945.

More than 20 million visitors have participated at the Expo this year which ends on October 31.

Events will be held throughout the day to mark World Food Day including "Zero Hunger Generation", a question and answer session on the key role that new generations will play in achieving the new SDGs and "Finance for Food", organised by the economy ministry and the IFAD.

A key focus of World Food Day 2015 is family farming with more than 90 per cent of the 570 million farms worldwide managed by an individual or family, according to FAO.

Roberto Barbieri, the director general of Oxfam Italy, said: "There are 795 million people suffering hunger in the world, a number that is 13 times higher than the Italian population… If men and women had equal opportunities worldwide, there would be 150 million less people suffering hunger"

Food waste is also a key theme of this year’s World Food Day with over one-third of food produced every year for humans - approximately 1.3 billion tonnes - being wasted, according to FAO.