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His Excellency Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa received a Food Security Recognition Award from His Excellency Graziano da Silva, Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The award pays tribute, recognises and celebrates the Republic of South Africa’s achievement in the fight against hunger.

FAO has for the past two decades monitored progress made by 129 countries towards internationally recognized food security targets; the 2015 State of Food Insecurity in the World report states that the number of people who still suffer from chronic undernourishment fell to under 800 million for the first time since 1990. However 1 out of 9 people on the planet still do not have enough food to conduct active, healthy and productive lives.

South Africa is one of 72 countries that have reached the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) hunger target that is, reducing by half the proportion of undernourishment between 1990 and 2015.

“It is a moment of honour and celebration for South Africa to have met the ambitious and highly needed World Food Summit targets to reduce by half the total number of undernourished people” said Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

South Africa is recognized and acknowledged with eleven other countries for keeping undernourishment levels below 5 percent.

The other countries are: Argentina, Barbados, Brunei Darussalam, Egypt, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Going forward South Africa will continue to emphasize and prioritize elements that promote food security, such as inclusive economic growth; rural development; and social protection systems working with civil society and other non-state actors.

Issued by Government Communications (GCIS) on behalf of Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries