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| World leaders renew commitment to end hunger
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Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) -
World leaders who convened in Rome, Italy, Monday for th
e World Summit
on Food Security have unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitm
ent to eradicate hunger
at the earliest date, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO
).
Countries also agreed to work to reverse the decline in domestic and internation
al funding for agriculture and promote
new investment in the sector.
They also resolved to improve governance of global food issues in partnership wi
th relevant stakeholders from the public and private
sector, and to proactively face the challenges of climate change to food securit
y.
In his message to the summit, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the curren
t food crisis "a wake-up call for tomorrow", adding:
"There can be no food security without climate security."
"If the glaciers of the Himalaya melt, it will affect the livelihoods and surviv
al of three hundred million people in China and up to a
billion people throughout Asia.
"Africa's small farmers, who produce most of the continent's food and depend mos
tly on rain, could see harvests drop by 50 per cent by 2020.
We must make significant changes to feed ourselves and, most especially, to safe
guard the poorest and most vulnerable," he said.
Calling the over one billion hungry people in the world "our tragic achievement
in these modern days," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf
stressed the need to produce food where the poor and hungry live and to boost ag
ricultural investment in these regions.
"In some developed countries, two to four percent of the population are able to
produce enough food to feed the entire nation and even to
export, while in the majority of developing countries, 60 to 80 percent of the p
opulation are not able to meet country food needs,"
Diouf said.
"The planet can feed itself, provided that the decisions made are honoured and t
he required resources are effectively mobilized," he
said, calling for an increase in official development assistance to agriculture,
a greater share of developing country budgets devoted to
agriculture and incentives to encourage private investment.
"Eliminating hunger from the face of Earth requires US$44 billion of official de
velopment assistance per year to be invested in
infrastructure, technology and modern inputs. It is a small amount if we conside
r the US$365 billion of agriculture producer support in OECD
countries in 2007, and if we consider the US$1,340 billion of military expenditu
res by the world in the same year," Diouf said.
"Hunger is the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty," said Pope Benedict XVI.
"Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the
tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions."
The pope called for greater understanding of the needs of the rural world, and t
hat access to international markets must be favoured for those products
coming from the poorest areas, which today are often relegated to the margins.
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| Nairobi - 17/11/2009 |
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