Japan vows to help tackle global malnutrition by adding more staff to FAO

07-Mar-2017 - Last updated on 06-Mar-2017 at 22:20 GMT

Japan will add more staff to FAO to help tackle malnutrition. © iStock

Japan will provide more staff to work at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to underscore its efforts to help reduce hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

From its current 30 personnel, the number of Japanese working at the FAO will be tripled over the next five years. Officials want to increase the number of Japanese FAO staff in proportion to its financial contribution to the UN.

Presently, Japan is financing 10.8% of the FAO budget and three percent of FAO’s staff are Japanese.

To entice more Japanese professionals to join FAO, the government will increase its support for people working in the private sector and students who wish to work at the UN, reports said.

There is also a plan to hold a seminar highlighting FAO’s role and operations, to coincide with the visit to Japan of FAO’s Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva this May.

According to local media, Japan also seeks to enhance its ties with Italy, which will host the of the Group of Seven summit in May. Food issues have been one of the main topics at previous Group of Seven summits.

During the 2015 summit, leaders from member countries declared the goal of lifting 500 million people in developing nations out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.

This goal was reaffirmed at last year’s summit, held in Japan