Sustainable Development Goals

With its moves in support of sustainable forest management in the country, Uzbekistan this week is taking another step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Although the International Year of Pulses has helped raise awareness globally of the many benefits of pulses, such as beans, lentils and chickpeas, gains must be further strengthened to achieve the international community's new development goals, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

The pledge to eradicate hunger and poverty must go hand in hand with rapid transformations of farming and food systems to cope with a warmer world, FAO said in a new report.

With a record 130 million people worldwide now dependent on humanitarian assistance, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that though solutions to the crises that plunged these people into such desperate hardship are neither simple nor quick, “there are things we can all do – today, and every day. We can show compassion, we can raise our voices against injustice, and we can work for change.”

Recognizing that rural development plays a fundamental role in stabilizing communities and reducing migration and conflict, senior government officials have renewed their commitment at a United Nations conference in Rome to invest in smallholder agriculture and reduce poverty in developing countries.