Young girls line up at a feeding centre in Mogadishu. Credit: UN Photo/Tobin Jones
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2017 (IPS) – In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending out massive aid packages, distributed cash vouchers to families who could spend it to buy goods according to their needs.
The famine between the years 2010 and 2012, which killed more than a quarter of a million people in the country, offered important lessons to the aid co…
Zoltán Kálmán Ambassador, Former Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome
ROME, Jun 9 2021 (IPS) – In three cycles I spent all together more than 15 years in Rome, at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and between my last two assignments in Rome my responsibilities in Budapest included FAO related issues. This made it possible for me to witness the development of this organization under the leadership of four Directors-General. Edouard Saouma, Jacques Diouf, Jose Graziano da Silva and Qu Dongyu. This long association and “historic” view of FAO would definitely help me in fulfilling the role of the Independent Chairperson of the Council of FAO (ICC). As conventional wisdo…