Ronan Keating appointed ambassador to fight hunger

Pop star Ronan Keating was today appointed as a goodwill ambassador for a campaign to combat world hunger.

The 28-year-old former Boyzone singer is to promote the work of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Minister of State for Agriculture Brendan Smith said it was a great honour for Keating to be the first Irish person in the role, after his appointment at a special ceremony at the FAO’s headquarters in Rome today.

“It is also a testament to the role that Ireland and its citizens have played towards combating world hunger, poverty and under-development in agriculture and rural development,” he wrote in a letter to Keating.

The FAO was set up 60 years ago today to improve agricultural and living standards in poor countries and receives an annual contribution of around €900,000 from the Department of Agriculture.

The 23 goodwill abassadors for the FAO, which include American singer Dionne Warwick and Italian soccer player Roberto Baggio, are tasked with attracting public attention to the fact that some 850 million people continue to suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition.

Around 12 million people in Africa face chronic food shortages between now and the spring harvest, particularly in Malawi where some regions have received no rain for four years.

Keating, who has clocked up a dozen Top 10 singles during his solo career, has been heavily involved in charity work for several years. He helped set up the Marie Keating foundation to help women fight breast cancer after his mother died from the disease in 1998.

During a visit to Ghana last year, he was said to be shocked at the sight of poverty and how unfair trade laws were destroying livelihoods, and became a trade justice ambassador for the charity Christian Aid.