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    Transcending boundaries: Noeleen Heyzer highlights four keystones to fight food security

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    In the latest perspective in our Transcending Boundaries series, Noeleen Heyzer argues that, despite reaching the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and making strong gains towards alleviating extreme poverty, food security remains a significant development problem. Heyzer considers why, despite having the resources, technology and expertise to feed everyone on the planet, this has not come into fruition.

    Heyzer highlights four prerequisites for improving food security. These are: 1) A systemic approach to ending hunger, 2) Shifting people to a people-centred vantage point of agriculture, 3) Integrating eco-efficient food systems into environmental planning and finally, 4) Addressing managerial issues such as the processes through which there remains significant food loss and wastage. Her full blog also appears on Eco-Business Asia.

    Heyzer was an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the highest ranking Singaporean in the United Nations (2007-2014). She was recently the UNSG’s Special Adviser for Timor-Leste, working to support peace-building, state-building, and sustainable development.

    She was the first woman to serve as the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific since its founding in 1947. Under her leadership (Aug 2007-Jan 2014), the commission focused on regional co-operation for a more resilient Asia-Pacific, founded on shared prosperity, social equity, and sustainable development. She was at the forefront of many innovations including for regional disaster preparedness, inclusive socio-economic policies, sustainable agriculture and urbanization, energy security and regional connectivity. She was widely recognized for the formulation and implementation of the landmark of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security.

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