30 September 2014: Bangladesh, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal and Timor-Leste have decided to develop common approaches to malnourishment, hunger and stunting in children, and will aim to devise similar work plans for addressing the problem. Government representatives met in Bangkok, Thailand, on 29 September 2014, for an inception workshop for the implementation of the Zero Hunger Challenge in Asia and the Pacific. The regional initiative was endorsed at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN’s (FAO) 32nd Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, in March 2014.

Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, spoke to the importance of creating a regional work-plan and collective efforts. “Policies on food security and nutrition need to be harmonized through a multi-sectoral and inter-ministerial approach,” he said.

Almost two-thirds of the world’s chronically malnourished people live in the Asia-Pacific Region, and the Zero Hunger Challenge aims to achieve a hunger-free world by 2025. [FAO Press Release] [32nd FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific]