Every year, the International Day of Charity serves as a call to every person to act with solidarity and compassion in the face of human suffering.

            The 2016 Olympics have already shattered records, but even before the first competition began, these Games made history by giving athletes who have no country to call home a place on the starting line.

Young people are not only our future -- they are our present. Our planet has never been so young, with 1.8 billion young women and men. They are the most connected, the most outspoken and the most open-minded generation the world has ever seen. They are powerful agents of positive change, essential to taking forward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

            The world’s young people – who make up the largest generation of youth in history – can lead a global drive to break the patterns of the past and set the world on course to a more sustainable future. Young people are directly affected by the tragic contradictions that prevail today: between abject poverty and ostentatious wealth, gnawing hunger and shameful food waste, rich natural resources and polluting industries.

All over the world, tens of millions of people are desperately seeking refuge, many of them far from home and even farther from safety. Migrants and refugees face imposing physical obstacles and bureaucratic barriers. Sadly, they are also vulnerable to human rights violations and exploitation by human traffickers.

FAO calls for better coordination between the two sectors towards sustainable farming systems and forest management

6 July, Moscow, Russian Federation – The “Russian Village-2016” Forum underway in Moscow this week featured a seminar on ““Greening” the economy in Russian villages to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030”, co-hosted by FAO and UNEP.

Officials, scientists, businesspeople, and specialists in agriculture were among the guests at the event, which was organized by the State Duma with support from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and the Moscow City Government. 

In the drive to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the Asia-Pacific region has achieved much and continues to move in the right direction. But to make sure no one is left behind, societies need to take decisive action now. This was the message of Eugenia Serova, head of FAO’s Liaison Office with the Russian Federation, as she addressed the international conference on Food Security in Asia-Pacific here.