“By working together to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – starting with zero poverty and zero hunger – we can break the chain of desperation” that leads to emergencies and humanitarian disaster,” said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), on the final day of the agency’s Governing Council.

The two-day conference, which is held annually in Rome for officials representing IFAD’s 176 member states, heard urgent calls for action in support of increased investment in smallholder agriculture to ensure food security, climate change adaptation, equitable prosperity and, ultimately, to remove the root causes that lead to conflict and migration.

Delivering this year’s lecture, Mohamed Ibrahim, an entrepreneur and founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, took African governments to task for not living up to their commitments to invest in agriculture and rural development.

Available at: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53268#.Vsa7ELR97Gg