Azernews.Az

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) honored Iran for its successful efforts in overcoming hunger, IRNA news agency reported on December on 2.

Alongside with the Islamic Republic, 12 countries including Brazil, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Philippines and Uruguay were honored by FAO for achieving food security milestones ahead of the global 2015 deadline.

They were all awarded diplomas at the FAO headquarters in Rome.

The countries were recognized for the early achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG-1) hunger target – to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015 – or the more stringent 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) target of halving the absolute number of hungry people by 2015.

The FAO said the countries have now reached the MDG-1 hunger target, while Brazil, Cameroon and Uruguay have also achieved the more ambitious WFS target of halving the number of hungry by 2015.

Iran’s permanent representative to the FAO Aminollah Taghavi accepted the award on behalf of Iran from Director-General of the FAO José Graziano da Silva.

According to the FAO’s annual “‘State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI)” reports Iran has reduced the number of people who suffer from hunger to below five percent between the years 2012 to 2014,” Taghavi said.

He added that in 2000, 189 countries in the UN General Assembly announced their willingness and commitment to the elimination of multiple deprivation of their nation including the recognition of personal dignity, freedom, equality and the basic needs of life, such as the elimination of poverty, hunger, violence and solidarity.

The commitment then turned into the MDGs, Taghavi said.