IN ORDER TO MEET THE UNITED NATION’S GLOBAL GOAL 2 – ZERO HUNGER – BY 2030
LONDON & NEW YORK, 12th August, 2016: Worldwide, nearly 800 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition. For the first time in human history, we have the knowledge and the tools to put an end to it. Open data makes that knowledge available to everyone.
GODAN, the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition initiative, has launched an Open Data Online Revolution in partnership with Global Citizen. The GODAN Open Data Online Revolution empowers stakeholders and world leaders to unlock the data necessary to solve the challenge of global food insecurity.
Members of civil society, end hunger campaigners, high profile personalities, the media and other supporters will sign an online petition to drive the importance of open data. The petition will be handed over at a meeting at the United Nations in New York, in September. Each signature is a step closer to achieving the UN’s Global Goal 2 – Zero Hunger. Results from the petition will be unveiled at GODAN’s ground-breaking, annual summit in New York on 15th and 16th September, where world leaders, researchers, farmers, students and public, private and non-profit organisations will convene to showcase the impact of open data around the world.
“We must make the world’s accumulated agriculture and nutritional information available to everyone. This information is often locked away and unseen in government, private sector and civil society datasets. It needs to be identified and set free,” says Natasha Mudhar, Media Spokesperson for GODAN.
With open data, a mother in Malawi can choose the best seeds to sow in order to achieve a plentiful harvest to feed her hungry family; a commercial farmer in the United States has the right data to enrich his soil to produce more bountiful crops; the smallholder farmer in Tanzania will better understand and anticipate adverse weather conditions; the food manufacturer can produce healthier products; the nutritionist is able to offer better advice.
Farmers, agricultural organizations, researchers, policy makers, governments, and other private sector and civil society stakeholders should all be involved in building a food secure world. By signing the online petition, the public can also play a key part in achieving this.
The GODAN Summit 2016 takes place on 15th and 16th September in Hilton Midtown Hotel, New York. To register, click here: http://summit.godan.info/
To sign the petition to help end world hunger now, visit: http://summit.godan.info/petition/
To become a GODAN partner, click here: www.godan.info/becomeagodanpartner