Ban Ki-Moon delivers United Nations' Expo logo to Italy

Blue spoon is symbol of UN's 'Zero Hunger Challenge'

Rome- United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon this week delivered the official UN logo for Milan Expo 2015 during an official visit to Rome.

The UN chief and the heads of UN agencies, gathered in Rome for coordination meeting, paid their respects to Italian Premier Matteo Renzi and President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday. Ban unveiled the logo at an Expo-themed reception organized by Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini. The UN logo shows a blue spoon - the colour of the UN flag - inside a green zero, and flanked by the slogan "Zero Hunger Challenge". The UN focus for the food-themed world fair is "Zero Hunger Challenge. United for a sustainable world". The mission is one Ban also promoted at the Rio+20 sustainable development conference in 2012. Eighteen big spoon installations across the 100-hectare Expo site near the Rho Pero fairgrounds will mark the "Zero Hunger" itinerary for visitors.

For the first time in the history of the Universal Exposition, the UN's presence not be consolidated in a single, dedicated pavilion. Ban called 2015 a "crucial" year in which it will be assessed whether the UN's Millenium Development Goals were achieved, and a "new agenda for sustainable development" will be launched.

First on the list of eight millenium goals set in 2000 to be carried out within fifteen years is "eradicating extreme hunger and poverty". The overarching theme of Milan Expo 2015 is "Feeding the planet. Energy for life", tackling issues such as food security, hunger, and promoting environmentally, socially, economically sustainable global food production practices. Ban on Wednesday also visited the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a UN agency headquartered in Rome specialized in improving food security through agricultural development projects to benefit the world's rural poor. "In a year that is so important for us, Expo 2015 offers the United Nations an opportunity to give impetus to the resolution of problems related to food and hunger," said IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze, who spoke on behalf the UN's World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization in addition to IFAD. Nwanze has been encharged with coordinating UN participation in Milan Expo 2015, which will take place from May 1 to October 31. So far 144 countries - representing 94% of the world's population - and three international organizations are set to put their best on show.

Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi on Monday signed a decree that allocates 141 million euros for Expo-related transport infrastructure and connections. Lupi called it "a commitment that gains additional value thinking that this infrastructure will remain as a legacy to Lombardy citizens - but not only to them, given the importance of this region for the entire Italian economy".