All set for the V Summit of Zero Hunger Regions

Everything is ready for the V Summit of Zero Hunger Regions on Food Security and Food Sovereignty, which will be held at the Poble Nou campus of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona from October 2 to 4. After summits held in Africa and America, ORU Fogar is bringing this event to Europe for the first time. With the support of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of Catalonia, a program will be presented that aims to take advantage of the extensive experience of Catalonia in this field, as well as the lessons that this territory is drawing from the problems that affect it particularly, such as climate change. Thus, the three central themes to which attention will be devoted are Climate change (drought) and its impact on agriculture, the prevention of food losses and waste, and the importance of gastronomy. The fight against hunger, which continues to seriously affect some 800 million people in the world, will remain a central theme.

The Summit will be opened, in addition to the welcome of the Catalan authorities and the greeting of the President of ORU Fogar, Rachid el Abdi, with a message from the Executive Director of FAO, Qu Dongyu, who will recall the latest reports of the Agency in relation to hunger in the world. FAO's presence will be reinforced by the presence of the Director of the Agrifood Systems and Food Security Division, Corinna Hawkes, who will give a keynote speech to complete the information on the situation in the world and report on the policies that are trying to achieve SDG 2 Zero Hunger. Regional presidents from Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali and Kenya will be able to compare their policies with those of FAO. But also from a platform such as the Regional Community of the Andes of Peru, the successes achieved in the fight against anemia or chronic child malnutrition will be presented.

The space "Agriculture in the face of water scarcity" will open with a presentation by the President of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought (COP 15) and former Regional President of Nawa, Alain-Ricard Donwahi from the Ivory Coast. The space will have specialists in seeds resistant to the lack of water, among them, different people in charge of the Institut de Recerca i Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Catalunya, but also with the experience in the fight against drought of the regions of Burkina Faso, or an Ecuadorian province such as Azuay, which has dedicated itself to the "sowing of water" in the Andean marshes. 

At the previous summit, the one held in Araucanía, Chile in 2022, the conference that generated the most interest was that of Arantza Madariaga, director of ELIKA, the Basque Foundation for Agri-Food Security, speaking on how to prevent food waste. In view of this interest, this summit, in addition to inviting the Basque Government, will present other very good practices in this field from very different geographical areas: from Catalonia to Paraná (Brazil), via the Lima region. In the latter case, in Peru, we will see not only the problems of food loss due to inefficient agricultural production processes, but also the problems of waste in an already urban society.

In a region like Catalonia, with a remarkable culinary culture, Barcelona, one of the capitals of the "Mediterranean diet", wanted to talk about gastronomy and how the art of cooking can be a strategic ally in the fight against hunger and in favor of a healthy and balanced diet. In addition to the space specifically dedicated to gastronomy, shared by the Catalan chef Maria Nicolau and the Ivorian chef Charlie Koffi, there is a round table entitled "Identity, culture and food". In this space, Catalonia will present its program as World Gastronomic Region 2025, while the Prefect of Manabi will present the candidacy of this Ecuadorian province as World Gastronomic Region 2026. The Hungarian Gyula Ocskay and the President of the Senegalese Department of Dagana Ababacar Ndao will be present.

Finally, prominent regional leaders from different continents will discuss the role of regions in achieving the SDG Zero Hunger. After this debate, the Summit will close with the reading of the manifesto " ", previously approved by the Assembly of ORU Fogar.

Prior to the Summit, on October 2nd, and while there is a meeting of ORU Fogar's Board, three of the organization's working groups will meet: Gender Equality, Development Cooperation and Environment (Regions4). Following the meetings and prior to the Summit, ORU Fogar's 2024 Annual Assembly will meet.

In collaboration with the Club of Rome, ORU Fogar's Gender Equality working group will organize a side-event entitled “Women and Goal Ce-ro Hunger”. Led by the Secretary for Women of the Province of Cordoba, Argentina, Claudia Martinez, the event will feature the governors/presidents of the regions present at the Summit.

More info here: V Summit - Oru Fogar (regionsunies-fogar.org)