“THE UN IS PROUD TO BE AT EXPO MILANO 2015 TO HIGHLIGHT THE CAUSE OF FOOD SECURITY”

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Expo Milano 2015 will be hosted in Milan, Italy, between 1 May and 31 October 2015 with the theme, “Feeding the Planet. Energy for Life”. The UN Commissioner-General for Expo 2015, Mr. Eduardo Rojas-Briales, will participate in the official opening of the Expo, along with the Commissioners-General of some 130 participating countries. The United Nations’ participation at Expo 2015 provides a unique opportunity to build momentum around food-related issues. In this regard, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has designated the Rome-based agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP), under the Director-General of FAO, to lead in the coordination of the 20 UN agencies participating at Expo.

“The UN is proud to be here to highlight the cause of food security,” Secretary-General Ban said in his welcoming video message screened in the UN Garden,an open-air area close to Pavilion Zero and the Expo’s entrance, where visitors will be introduced to the UN theme for Expo 2015, “The Zero Hunger Challenge • United for a Sustainable World”.

The UN Secretary-General emphasizes the need to urgently redress the dramatic imbalance in the global distribution of food, reiterating his global call-to-action

for a world without hunger. “Everyone has a role to play,” stressed Mr. Ban, inviting visitors to discover UN content throughout the Expo site and learn how the

Zero Hunger Challenge relates to each and every one of us.

The objective of the UN’s participation in Expo Milano 2015 is to engage visitors, demonstrating that ending hunger in our lifetime is possible. Everyone has to do their part, including through a commitment to changing simple actions and daily practices. “We can do it if we can work together,” said the UN Secretary-General.

For the first time in the history of Universal Expositions, the UN will not have a single pavilion but a horizontal presence, with content spread across numerous areasof the Expo site. Eighteen giant spoon installations comprise the UN presence, representing the five pillars of the Zero Hunger Challenge, women’s empowerment andgender equality and other UN content related to Expo’s thematic areas.

Each spoon will be positioned in a UN space at the Expo site, including at the Pavilion Zero, which is expected to attract some 40 percent of all Expo visitors. A number of UN panels or stele will be located throughout the Pavilion informing visitors, in a simple storytelling style, about the links between the concepts present in each of the rooms. The UN presence will emphasize the strong link between the theme, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” and one of the fundamental UN missions: ensuring that all people have the access to safe and nutritious food to lead healthy and active lives, without compromising the needs of future generations.