The first meeting of a committee charged to discuss ways to combat hunger in the Arab region has met at the Arab League in Cairo Egypt. APN founding member and Chair of the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty (ANFS) Razan Zuayter was invited to the meeting held on September 19, 20, 2018.

Zuayter’s recommendations included the need to push for the immediate cessation of wars and conflicts and the adoption of regional priorities in food security rather than ones dictated by international donors. She stressed the importance of partnership with civil society, especially the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty. She also called for mobilizing political will for Arab agricultural integration and intensifying the cultivation of wheat and grain as a means of food sovereignty and hunger eradication.

In recommendations addressed to the international institutions, she called for a clear plan of action from the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands, Syria (ACSAD) and the World Food Program (WFP) to support the strategic reserve in the affected countries, for more important roles of ESCWA, IFAD, and FAO and commitment to promote and implement the Framework for Action for Food Security in Protracted Crises endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security.