Italy is strongly committed to ending hunger in the world and doing so is a moral duty for governments, populist premier Giuseppe Conte said in Rome on Thursday.
"The slavery caused by hunger and poverty can and must be abolished," Conte told the inaugural session of the UN agriculture fund IFAD's major annual meeting.
"This is a moral duty and imperative even more than a political one. And Italy will continue to play its part with ever-increasing commitment and determination," Conte vowed.
Conte and Pope Francis both gave addresses at the opening session of IFAD's Governing Council meeting.
Some 821 million people in the world - around one in nine - were undernourished in 2017 while 770 million or one in ten did not know where their next meal was coming from according to the latest figures from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children and the more vulnerable – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round.
