Food Minister Advocate Qumrul Islam on Monday formally handed over the FAO ‘Achievement Award’ to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The Food Minister handed over the award signed by FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva to the Prime Minister at the beginning of the day’s regular cabinet meeting held at Bangladesh secretariat yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Bangladesh received the award in Rome in June in recognition of the country’s notable and outstanding progress in fighting hunger.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that a special event titled ‘Recognizing notable and outstanding progress in fighting hunger’ was held in Rome on June 6-13, 2015 on the sidelines of the 39th Session of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
During the event, Food Minister Advocate Qumrul Islam received the award on June 7 from the FAO on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The Achievement Award mentioned,”2015 marks the end of the Millennium Development Goal cycle. Based on FAO estimates, the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh reached target 1.c of Millennium Development Goal one: to reduce by at least 50 percent, between 1990 to 2015, the proportion of the country’s population suffering from undernourishment, or to bring it below 5 percent The Cabinet Secretary said that Bangladesh has already achieved the target of reducing the number of people suffering from undernourishment by at least 50 percent before 2015. He said that the award added another feather to the crown of success of Bangladesh. Ministers and State Ministers attended the Cabinet meeting while concerned Secretaries were also present.
