Speaker at international workshop on Thursday called for collaborated efforts to end poverty and hunger, saying that as many as 805 million people are facing chronically hunger worldwide where 1.2 billion people are living in the extreme poverty.

Speaker at international workshop on Thursday called for collaborated efforts to end poverty and hunger, saying that as many as 805 million people are facing chronically hunger worldwide where 1.2 billion people are living in the extreme poverty. They were addressing the inaugural session of eight-day International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) PhD Workshop 2015 themed “the core concept of ICDD research” arranged at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad in which scientists from eight countries are participating. The workshop was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Chairing the session, UAF Faculty of Agriculture Dean Prof Dr Muhammad Arshad said third world countries were the most vulnerable to poverty and hunger. He said that it was imperative to pace up efforts to combat the unemployment, hunger, food insecurity by involving all the stakeholders, rational usage of resources and by increasing the education level and to produce the skilled manpower. He praised ICDD for taking the universities from eight countries to work collectively for the said cause. He said that we have to work together for the betterment of the society. Sustainable Development Policy Institute Executive Director Abid Qayyum Suleri said that situation of education, health and poverty had been improving in the South Asia for last 20 years. He said that natural calamities and manmade disaster were aggrieving the situation. Ursula Sarback Director DAAD Pakistan said that in the first phase of ICDD, 40 scholarships were given to UAF students. He said that students exchange progrmme among the members of the DAAD should be initiated to learn from each other and work together for the cause of poverty and hunger alleviation. Dr Christoph Scherrer from University of Kassel, Germany said that ICDD was an international multi-disciplinary network of universities from eight countries in four continents including Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe headquartered at the University of Kassel, Germany. He said that across the globe in the poverty, 60 percent are farmers; 20 percent landless rural and the 20 percent were the urban population. German Scientist Andreas Burket said that ICDD is a global think tank network, focusing on povetrty alleviation and to achieve full and productive employment. He called upon the interdisciplinary approaches to serve humanity. Muhammad Asif from the Ministry of Overseas Pakistani said that it is need of the hour to give the awareness among the people about the hazard of ever increasing population. He said that the country poplation was touching to 180 million people. He said that n family size should be manageable to alleviate the poverty. Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization UAF Director Prof Dr Asif Ali said that around 60 percent of the Pakistani population is food insecure. He said that the joint work with ICDD was opening the way to curb the hunger and poverty. Prof Dr Muhammad Younas thanked the audience and guests from abroad whereas Dr Babar Shahbaz also spoke on the occasion.