Samoa wins award in Rome

Samoa has won another award from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (F.A.O).

This time, the award recognises Samoa’s efforts in “satisfying the 1996 World Food Summit goal” which is “to reach the target of reducing by at least 50 per cent the absolute number of persons suffering from undernourishment between 1990 and 2015.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Le Mamea Ropati Mualia, accepted the award on behalf of Samoa in Rome, Italy, where the 39th Session of the F.A.O Conference is being held.

“This is a great achievement by our country and we ought to be proud of it,” Le Mamea, who is the Chairman of the conference, said.

“This is also a reflection of the great contribution by our small family farmers in carrying out their obligations by working in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture.”

“My advice is to keep up the good work and work out strategies to make sure that the momentum now achieved be further developed and sustained.”

Earlier, Samoa’s Honorary Consul General to Italy, Papali’i Giovanni Caffarelli, addressed the conference.

This is what he said:

“On behalf of the Samoan Delegation, I wish to reiterate our sincere thanks and gratitude to the Conference for the confidence entrusted in our Honorable Minister Le Mamea to chair the 39th session of the FAO conference. This is indeed an honour and a privilege for Samoa and the wide Southwest Pacific family.

I would like to take this opportunity also to congratulate High Chief Tagaloaletoa o le Malae o le Toto Graziano da Silva for his well-deserved appointment as Director-General for a second term. We have every confidence in your capable leadership and vision to steer the ship and take our Organization to the next level.

Samoa looks forward to continue building on the close relationship and cooperation we have established and enjoyed with FAO during your first mandate.

Samoa commends and challenges you, Director-General, to continue with your decentralization policy, for we are convinced that this is the right path to travel in our collective efforts towards real and lasting sustainable development for all our communities, especially the vulnerable and disadvantaged, including women and youth.

As an adopted son of a SIDS country, Director-General, we look to you to assist us in streamlining and moving the SIDS agenda in the work programme of FAO. We further invite you and Member States to consider the lead taken by the ACP Group in establishing a SIDS Forum within FAO. The upcoming Conference on Financing for development in Addis Ababa in July, the summit in New York, and COP21 in Paris later in the year provide windows of opportunity to continue pushing the SIDS Agenda, in particular the Samoa Pathway outcome and recommendations.

The Pacific is an ocean continent.

As such, fishery is one of the few resources we possess and we must ensure that the region benefits and receives a fair economic return to assist in the creation of employment opportunities for our people. Samoa looks forward to FAO`s assistance in this area. It is also timely and necessary to work with relevant international organizsations to seriously examine the nexus between trade, food security, and the incidence of NCDs.

Further strengthening partnership between FAO, SPREP, and SPC in our region is essential to enhancing and improving FAO`s vision and activities in the Pacific.

In conclusion, as a Samoan High Chief, it is customary for you Director- General to make regular visits to your adopted country and region. We look forward to welcoming you again and I hope, not in a too distant future.

Thank you and God bless.”