On October 10 2024, the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to FAO, IFAD, and WFP together with the Forum Roma of Catholic Inspired NGOs held a seminar to celebrate World Food Day 2024, entitled: The right to food, between deprivation and waste. It's time to act.

We live in an era rife with contradictions: while there are multiple ongoing food crises in various regions of the planet, we are also witnessing excessive food waste, and the use of food for other purposes. Wars, economic shocks, and extreme weather events have continued to force millions of people to grapple with hunger and malnutrition. The fact that there is enough food for everyone in today’s world, yet not everyone can access it, is paradoxical. The data we have available is far from encouraging. Therefore, the purpose of this meeting was to reflect on the importance of adopting a holistic approach that will allow us to produce appropriate solutions to tackle the imbalances present in the current food system.

The organisers of the event aim to support this process through an approach based on integral ecology, which is crucial for tackling global challenges in a systemic manner: viewing food injustice not only as a problem of food scarcity, but also as an issue of justice. It is extremely important to ensure that food systems are sustainable, resilient, and inclusive.

“It is a matter of adopting innovative solutions that can transform the way we produce and consume food for the well-being of our communities and of our planet, thus strengthening the capacity to recover and long-term sustainability” (Pope Francis, Message for World Food Day, 16 October 2020). 

On this occasion, WUCWO, who holds consultative status at FAO, presented its commitment to end world hunger. Through our resolution "GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS. CARE OF OUR COMMON HOME. CALL TO ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION" we are encouraging actions to solve the current global food crisis and restore equity in distribution and to promote ecological conversion. 

This event included the presentation of a Manifesto signed by all the member organisations of the Forum Roma, including WUCWO, through which we committed ourselves to continue to work to eradicate hunger and misery in the world with concrete and incisive measures.