Mr José Graziano da Silva has formally taken the helm of the Food and Agriculture Organization, assuming the post of Director-General of the hunger-fighting UN agency. The new Director-General is pushing for a renewed focus on food security, offering to scale up FAO support available to low-income and food deficit countries - especially those facing protracted crises. "We will create teams that draw together the Organization's skills in policy advice, investment planning, resource mobilization, emergency response and sustainable development," the Director-General said. "Hunger eradication should not be separated from responses to other global challenges, such as reviving national economies, protecting natural resources from degradation, and mitigating and adapting to climate change," he added.

FAO was one of the first UN agencies to be created after World War II, with the understanding that the ensuing peace had created the conditions necessary to ensure humanity's freedom from hunger. More than a half-century later, an estimated 925 million people suffer from chronic hunger and many countries are far from achieving the first Millennium Development Goal to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living in hunger and extreme poverty. As Director-General, Graziano da Silva will aim for the eradication of hunger; sustainable food production and consumption; greater fairness in global food management; conclusion of FAO's organizational reform to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability, and expansion of partnerships and South-South cooperation. Graziano da Silva will hold his first press conference as Director-General on 3 January.