OBV/173
SAG/87

NEED TO ERADICATE HUNGER, MALNUTRITION, POVERTY STRESSED BY SPEAKERS AT WORLD FOOD DAY COMMEMORATION

Statements Made by General Assembly President, Deputy Secretary- General, Economic and Social Council President, FAO Director-General

Access to adequate food was a universal human right, General Assembly President Harri Holkeri (Finland) said at a Headquarters observance of World Food Day 2000.

In his keynote address, he noted that more than 800 million people worldwide continued to suffer from chronic malnutrition and hunger. The persistence of such widespread hunger and poverty was unacceptable in light of the enormous global scientific and technological progress, including the modernization of food production. The technology needed to end the problem of hunger existed, but did the political will? he asked. Fighting hunger, malnutrition and poverty were among the most fundamental challenges facing the collective community and individual countries.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fr�chette said that while humanity had made great progress, a great human tragedy continued to afflict the world -- too many people did not have enough to eat. The problem was particularly acute in the developing world, she said. In Africa, one out of three children suffered from chronic malnutrition. To achieve a millennium free from hunger, the international community had to work on many fronts. Ending hunger was not just a matter of growing more food. In the short term, the challenge was to make sure that food got into the hands of those who needed it most.

The President of the Economic and Social Council, Makarim Wibisono, heralded World Food Day as both an opportunity and a responsibility to recommit to the task of eradicating hunger and ensuring food security for all. At the same time, the commemoration was a stark reminder that chronic hunger and malnutrition still afflicted hundreds of millions in a world of plenty. Failure to achieve development, particularly sustainable, people-centred development, lay at the heart of the problem.

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, invoked a vision where every man, women and child had the food they needed to develop to their fullest potential. The challenge was to make that vision a reality. When people were nourished, they had the ability to live their lives with dignity and joy. Unfortunately, not all people had access to food at all

- 2 - Press Release OBV/173 SAG/87 18 October 2000

times. He appealed to governments and all sectors of society to join in solidarity to meet the goal of a world free from hunger.

World Food Day has been annually observed since 1981 in commemoration of the founding on 16 October 1945 of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which acts as the lead agency for rural development in the United Nations system.

World Food Day Work Programme

An observance of World Food Day 2000, under the theme �A Millennium Free from Hunger�, was scheduled to be held today, immediately upon the adjournment of the meeting of the General Assembly�s Second Committee (Economic and Financial). Statements were expected to be made by the Deputy Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, the President of the Economic and Social Council, and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Interested delegations, Secretariat staff, representatives of United Nations Funds and Programmes, the specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations and the media were invited to attend.

World Food Day has been annually observed since 1981 in commemoration of the founding on 16 October 1945 of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which acts as the lead agency for rural development in the United Nations system. The FAO works to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and the pursuit of food security -� the access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life.

Statements

HARRI HOLKERI (Finland), President of the General Assembly, said that World Food Day provided the opportunity to recommit to the cause of the hungry and poor worldwide. Food was a prerequisite for human survival and well-being, and a fundamental necessity. Yet, FAO�s recent report on food security had stated that more than 800 million continued to suffer from chronic malnutrition and hunger. It was unacceptable that such widespread hunger and poverty should persist in spite of the enormous scientific and technological progress made in the world, including the modernization of food production. The technology to end the problem of hunger existed, but did the political will? he asked.

He said that access to adequate food was a universal human right and involved the collective responsibility of the global community. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights had recognized that everyone had the right to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being. Fighting hunger, malnutrition and poverty was one of most fundamental challenges facing the collective community and individual countries. Last month�s Millennium Summit and its Declaration had demonstrated a renewed commitment by world leaders to implement the global development agenda as defined by the cycle of world conferences in the past decade. That Declaration, together with the World Food Summit Declaration and plan of action, contained the mandates for achieving a millennium free from hunger -- the theme of today�s World Food Day.

Those commitments must now be translated into action, he said. One of his priorities was to ensure that the Millennium Assembly reflected the commitments made in the Millennium Declaration. Governments must formulate national policies, plans and programmes targeting the most needy. He had previously stressed multilateralism as a means for promoting greater social equality and poverty alleviation. He had also emphasized the need to involve all sectors of civil society, particularly non-governmental organizations and the private sector. Seeking solutions together, identifying resources, mobilizing public opinion, and empowering the beneficiaries of development were all part of that approach.

The participation of people at all levels, from the smallest communities to the largest international meetings, was the foundation of true partnership, he said. To be effective, partnerships must be based on mutual trust. Today, there were many viable global networks of non-governmental organizations, whose work complemented that of the United Nations and its specialized agencies. That good will must be harnessed in new creative ways.

He had already seen how the private sector could be successfully mobilized for development. In keeping with the millennium spirit, no one should take �a business as usual� attitude on the issue of hunger and food security. A millennium free from hunger must be ensured at the start of the century. That was an attainable goal.

LOUISE FRECHETTE, Deputy Secretary-General, said that while humanity had made great progress, a great human tragedy continued to afflict the world -- too many people did not have enough to eat. Without food, there could be no progress. Hunger was a violation of the most basic human right, the right to food.

The problem was particularly acute in the developing world, she said. In Africa, one out of three children suffered from chronic malnutrition. To achieve a millennium free from hunger, the international community had to work on many fronts. Ending hunger was not just a matter of growing more food. In the short term, the challenge was to make sure that food got into the hands of those who needed it most.

As the Secretary-General had stressed in his message for World Food Day, there needed to be an increase in the educational level of people, she said. This was particularly the case for women and girls. There also needed to be policies and a safety net to protect the most vulnerable. World Food Day was taking place in the wake of the Millennium Summit, where world leaders had pledged to halve the number of those living in poverty. The international community and civil society had to work together to build a millennium free from hunger.

MAKARIM WIBISONO, President of the Economic and Social Council, said that since World Food Day was first commemorated in 1981, its central purpose was to raise awareness of the plight of the hungry and malnourished and to mobilize actions on their behalf. World Food Day 2000 presented the opportunity and responsibility to recommit to the task of eradicating hunger and ensuring food security for all. His country had actively observed World Food Day since its inception. The commemoration also bore a stark reminder that chronic hunger and malnutrition still afflicted approximately 800 million children and adults, in a world of plenty and one in which technological capability could produce enough food for all.

He said that making global economics, growth and prosperity work for all had been continuously undermined by a lack of political will. It was crucial to break through the cycle of poverty and hunger and the neglect generally attributed to those issues. The first year of the new millennium should add a sense of urgency that could reinforce the drive to promote social and economic development and eradicate poverty. The World Food Day theme of freeing the world from hunger on a permanent basis should gain momentum, and the underlying causes of hunger worldwide should be addressed. Failure to achieve development, particularly sustainable, people-centred development, lay at the heart of the problem.

Urgent action was needed to meet that challenge, he went on. Agricultural production must be increased along with the incomes of rural communities. Access to food supply must also be improved and it must be ensured that developing countries, in particular, participated in global trade on a more equitable basis. Incentives should be provided to rural areas and farming techniques should be enhanced. In addition, job opportunities should be created, especially for women and youth, and the role of the family in ensuring household security should be strengthened.

He recalled that the World Food Summit had sought to eradicate hunger by the year 2015. The Commission on Sustainable Development, this year, had adopted a number of decisions on agriculture, land resources, economic growth, trade and investment, and the mobilization of increased resources, among others. World Food Day was taking place against a background of rapid globalization, influenced, to a large extent, by the information technology revolution. The recent high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council had stressed the need to harness the enormous potential of information technology in the context of development; no country could insulate itself from its enormous impact without crushing the aspirations of its people.

Conquering hunger in the future was the goal, he said. Thankfully, World Food Day provided an excellent opportunity for an open forum, encouraging dialogue between all key players and stakeholders in the fight. This Day should become a milestone for moving faster along the road towards achieving the common goal -� a millennium free from hunger.

JACQUES DIOUF, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that on the occasion of World Food Day he wanted to invoke a vision and a challenge for the world community. The vision was a world where every man, woman and child had the food that they needed to develop to their fullest potential. The challenge was to make that vision a reality. The strengths of a nation depended on the strengths of its people. When people were nourished, they had the ability to live their lives with dignity and joy. Unfortunately, not all people had access to food at all times.

The number of people in the world that were chronically undernourished was still unacceptably high, he said. At the beginning of the third millennium, freedom from hunger remained the goal of 820 million people. Moreover, millions suffered worldwide from malnutrition and millions more were at risk from

contaminated water. In every country, some form of hunger continued to exist. Many people accepted hunger as a grim fact of life, but hunger and malnutrition were not inevitable in a world of plenty.

The international community had the knowledge to make headway in that area, he said. In the last few decades, significant progress had been made in reducing hunger. As a result, the number of people living with extreme hunger had declined from over 900 million to the current level of 820 million. Hunger and malnutrition were the primary indicators of poverty. The improvement of the lives of millions of people was very encouraging. That was proof that the international community had the tools to overcome the major problems of poverty and hunger. Would additional improvements occur rapidly enough to help the lives of millions of children afflicted by hunger? he asked. There was no time to rest if there was to be a world free of hunger.

As a fundamental first step, the elimination of hunger must be adopted as a national priority. Poverty constraints on food production and rural infrastructure instability were all critical issues. This would require the determination of governments to create policies to help achieve these goals. Governments must take action to correct the biased distribution of such fundamental services as healthcare, employment and education. Poverty alleviation programmes targeted towards the rural poor were needed, as were increased investments in people overall.

This year�s World Food Day was a call for collective action to meet and surpass, as quickly as possible, the goal of the World Food Summit, of halving, by the year 2015, the number of undernourished people. He appealed to governments and all sectors of society to join in solidarity to meet this goal. That should be the most important goal of the international community so that there could be a world free from hunger.

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United Nations