‘Zero Hunger can only be achieved through multilateral partnership’

AMMAN — A week after the world celebrated World Food Day (WFD), calling for the end of hunger by 2030, stakeholders in Jordan on Monday gathered under the patronage of HRH Princess Basma, to discuss further action towards “Zero Hunger” and the improvement of food security across the Kingdom. 

“Sustainable Development Goal 2 — Zero Hunger — cannot be achieved alone without other SDGs,” stressed World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director Sarah Gordon-Gibson at the event, which was organised by WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) under the title “Our Actions are our Future”.

"Over the next 12 years, there will be challenges and we need to join the efforts to overcome them,” Gordon-Gibson continued, echoing FAO Country Representative Nasredin Hag Elami’s statement that “a world without hunger in 2030 is only possible by working together in a multilateral partnership”.

According to the WFP official, some 815 million people suffer from hunger worldwide, more than one in nine of the world population.

In a report issued on the occasion of WFD, the FAO noted that some 13.5 per cent of Jordanians suffered from "food shortage" between 2015-2017, a situation partly attributed to the high number of Syrian refugees on Jordanian soil, which “undermined the ability of the country to provide adequate food for all”.

Princess Basma, who is the president of the National Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition in Jordan, recently met with Gordon-Gibson, to discuss the situation and check on the Cash for Assets Activity implemented in collaboration with the national alliance. 

Following a panel discussion outlining the national strategy towards Zero Hunger in Jordan, head of the innovation department at WFP Houman Hadad presented the benefits of “Building Blocks”, the blockchain technology implemented by WFP to support refugees in Jordan.

“Blockchain, which is a technique mainly used by banks for international cash transfers, is a way of organising data through a collection of information shared among many people and places,” according to a WFP statement.

“By recording transactions in a secure manner that cannot be hacked, the system helps speed up transactions while lowering the chance of fraud or data mismanagement. It therefore allows any two parties to transact directly, removing the need for third-party intermediaries like banks,” it added.

In his presentation, Hadad noted that almost $3 million were transferred in cash every month to over 100,000 beneficiaries in Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps, providing a “more cost effective, faster, more secure and more accountable” technology.

Marked annually on October 16, the WFD celebrates the founding of the FAO in 1945, with events organised in over 150 countries around the world, making it one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar, according to the FAO website.