FAO Media Advisory – www.fao.org
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MEDIA ADVISORY
Addressing El Niño’s impact on Central America’s Dry Corridor
30 June, 2016 | High-level meeting at FAO in Rome
The El Niño climate event is having a devastating impact on agriculture in Central America’s Dry Corridor where one of the worst droughts in decades has left 3.5 million people food insecure. In the most affected countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras some 2.8 million people are dependent on food aid.
FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have organized a high-level meeting in Rome on 30 June 2016 to focus on the urgent need for long-term action to address the impact of El Niño, including building resilience for food security and nutrition for the most vulnerable populations in the affected countries.
El Niño and its counterpart La Niña occur cyclically, but in recent years, mainly due to the effects of global climate change, extreme weather events associated with these phenomena, such as droughts and floods, have increased in frequency and severity.
This situation is also putting at risk the livelihoods of millions of small-scale family farmers in the Dry Corridor, many of whom are heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture.
The aim of the high-level meeting is to increase awareness of, and the response to, this protracted and recurrent crisis, and to mobilize the international community to support the efforts of governments, UN agencies and other partners.
This includes strengthening of early warning systems, disaster risk management, and improving preparedness and coordination for emergency responses at national and regional levels.
In addition to relief work, responding to the impacts of El Niño requires investing in improving poor rural communities’ ability to access land, credit and other resources while also ensuring they are provided with basic services like water, sanitation, health, education, transport infrastructure and electricity.
FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze, and World Food Programme Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, will deliver the opening remarks at the high-level meeting.
The meeting also includes a roundtable session with ministers from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico.
Media are welcome to attend the high-level meeting, which will also be webcast<http://www.fao.org/webcast/en/>.
RESOURCES FOR THE MEDIA
FAO’s El Niño portal<http://www.fao.org/el-nino/en/>
Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture<http://www.fao.org/giews/english/otherpub/elnino.htm>
FOLLOW ON TWITTER
#ElNino, @FAOKnowledge, @FAONews
ACCREDITATION:
Advance-accreditation 24 hours prior to the event is required. Send scans of a valid press card or letter of assignment on company stationery, plus a valid identification document with photo, to:
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You must have these materials with you on the day of the event in order to access FAO.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Peter Mayer, FAO
FAO media relations
Tel: (+39) 06 570 53304
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Joanne Levitan, IFAD
Tel: (+39) 06 54592509
Mobile : (+39) 366 5620977
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Frances Kennedy, WFP
Mobile: (+39) 346 7600806
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Journalists & editors:
For photos, audio clips, video material & b-roll, contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
Online tools:
Photos via the FAOnews Flickr account<http://www.flickr.com/photos/faonews>
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RSS feed<http://www.fao.org/news/rss-feed/en/> of FAO news releases
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This media advisory was issued by the Media Office at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). To unsubscribe from this news service click the link below or send an email to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> with "signoff Media-G-Eng-L" as the only text in the message body. You can also manage your subscription online, here<https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa>.
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