“The 2030 Agenda, with the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Zero Hunger initiative, require international entities, like the FAO, to engage responsibly the member States so that they can undertake and implement initiatives at the local level”. This is according to Pope Francis, who, in a message to the FAO to mark World Food Day, provided the international body with precise guidelines: “If in past years the activities of the FAO and of other international institutions have been characterized by tension between the long and the short term, so that a variety of programs and interventions could come together in the same area, today we know well that it is equally essential to unite together both the global and the local levels in response to the challenge of hunger”. “Global indicators are of no use if our commitment does not correspond to the reality on the ground”, Pope Francis denounced. Indeed, he wrote, it is “vital” that “the priorities and the measures enshrined in important programs should be firmly established and shared widely, so as to avoid individualistic approaches, facing together and in a determined way the challenge to combat hunger and misery. This must be done in the context of suitable institutional, social and economic support that offers fruitful initiatives and solutions so that the poor do not feel overlooked yet again”. “We do indeed have the adequate means and framework so that beautiful words and good wishes may become an action plan of substance that leads effectively to the eradication of hunger in our world”, the Pope observed. “To this end we need joint efforts, upright hearts, and persistent concern to firmly and resolutely make the other’s problem one’s own”. “And yet – the Pontiff lamented -, as with other pressing issues that affect humanity, we often encounter immense obstacles to solving problems. We find inevitable barriers that are the fruit of indecision or delays, and a lack of enthusiasm on the part of responsible political leaders who are often absorbed purely by electoral concerns or are focused on biased, transitory or limited perspectives”. “There is a fundamental lack of political will. What is needed is the willingness to end hunger, and this ultimately will not happen without a moral conviction that is shared by all peoples and all religious persuasions, where the integral good of the person is at the heart of all initiatives and consists in doing to another what we would want done to ourselves. We are speaking of an action based on solidarity among all nations and of the means that express the disposition of the people”.