37th CFS Plenary Session, 17-22 October 2011, Rome
The CFS is the United Nations' forum for reviewing policies concerning world food. It is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition.
Please visit our About section.
12 October 2010 – A scheme supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) seeks to help needy households – mostly headed by poor single mothers – send their children to school and receive health care.
UNDP is providing technical support to the fledgling nation’s Ministry of Social Solidarity for its Conditional Cash Transfers programme, which aims to end inter-generational poverty and protect the vulnerable by incentivizing families to improve their education levels and economic situations.
13 August 2010 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Timor-Leste is distributing relief supplies to communities in the southwest of the small South-East Asian country that have been hit by recent floods.
Rice, cooking utensils and mosquito nets are among the items being airlifted by helicopter to Covalima district, the region hardest hit, according to a press release issued today by the mission, known as UNMIT.
More than half a ton of rice has now been delivered to people in need in the past two weeks.
26 May 2010 – Vulnerable people in Timor-Leste will receive a nutritional boost, thanks to a new food fortification factory set up with assistance from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The new site will produce fortified blended food, called Timor-Vita, targeted for children under the age of five and pregnant and lactating women.
The new scheme will also replace the need for costly imports, providing a market for Timorese farmers. Fortified foods in Timor-Leste will now have a longer shelf life since they will no longer have to travel months by sea and can be produced fresh in the country.
11 March 2010 – The United Nations and the Government of Timor-Leste will be consulting closely on how the world body can best support the country’s efforts to secure a stable and prosperous future between now and 2012, when it is expected that the UN mission will close its operations there, said a senior official.
“I look forward very much to the dialogue with the Government about how best UNMIT and the United Nations can support the national process in the next three years,” said Ameerah Haq, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Timor-Leste and head of the UN mission there (UNMIT).
4 February 2010 – To help combat high maternal mortality rates in Timor-Leste, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has supplied equipment to assist in child delivery to a hospital in the capital of the fledgling nation.
The equipment was handed over to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Guido Valadares National Hospital on 28 January.
Pornchai Suchitta, UNFPA Representative, voiced hope that the equipment will help to save lives.
UNFPA has been working with the hospital since 2000 to build the capacity of the obstetrics and gynecology staff to tackle the high maternal mortality rate and other issues related to women’s health in the country.
19 October 2009 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed additional support that will enable thousands of children in Timor-Leste to receive meals while attending school.
A $1.4 million contribution from the Governments of Spain and Brazil to the country’s School Meals Programme, which will be channelled through WFP, will support meals for two months.
“This is a very timely donation as the School Meals Programme is in urgent need of additional resources,” said Xinmin Zhao, WFP Acting Country Director in Timor-Leste.
“All children from grades one to nine in this country will benefit from this gift, which is a significant contribution not only for the immediate needs of the children, but for the future of this nation,” she added.
The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis
