“Officials of United Nations food agencies on Saturday called for food security and nutrition to be placed at the center of the international agenda for African development, and hunger to be eliminated by 2025,” Xinhua reports (6/1). Director-General of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) José Graziano da Silva, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Kanayo Nwanze, and Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Ertharin Cousin “were speaking at the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) in Yokohama,” according to an FAO press release. “Special attention should be given to supporting smallholder farmers to improve global food security and empowering rural women, addressing gender inequalities and enabling them to transform their own lives and the lives of their families and communities,” the press release states (6/1). “They pointed out that in sub-Saharan Africa, [gross domestic product (GDP)] growth generated by agriculture had been shown to be eleven times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth in other sectors,” Xinhua writes, adding, “They agreed that reduction of hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty should remain at the core of the post-2015 agenda, following the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals” (6/1).