Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 May 2012
139 Deputy Jonathan O’Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will be encouraging representation from the Department of Agriculture, Marine and Food to attend the meeting of the UN Committee on World Food Security in October 2012 in Rome, where the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition will be approved. [25350/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition, currently under development by Committee on Food Security of the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation, will set out priority areas of action for all stakeholders involved in development cooperation to effectively tackle global hunger and food and nutrition insecurity. It will draw on existing frameworks, consolidate and complement them, and, importantly, it will ensure coherence between them. The key areas for action in the current iteration of the Global Strategic Framework are all fully aligned with the recommendations of the Irish Hunger Task Force Report, which was published in 2008. They include the need to support smallholder farmers, and in particular women farmers, to boost their agriculture yields, and investing more in agriculture research and innovation to help poor farmers grow more nutritious food to feed their families. The work will also focus on support for proven nutrition interventions, with a special focus on pregnant women, mothers and infants and the need to support more effective governance in food and nutrition security at global, national and local levels.
Combating global hunger is a key pillar of our foreign policy and our overseas development assistance programme. Just last week the Tánaiste and I announced that we have delivered on our target of directing twenty per cent of the Irish Aid budget on hunger reduction. Reaching this target has involved a reorientation of our development programme to ensure a stronger hunger response at country level and at the global level. It clearly marks Ireland out in global terms as a nation that is committed to the fight against hunger. While officials in my Department are actively involved in the development of the Global Strategic Framework, lead responsibility for Ireland's engagement with the process rests with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and attendance at the thirty-eight session of the Committee on Food Security in Rome later this year is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney T.D.
