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| FAO Summit ends in disappointment |
| Betwa Sharma/PTI / United Nations Nov 19, 2009, 12:59 IST |
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The three-day World Food Summit organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome ended without nations making any specific pledges to help the world's poorest farmers.
"To my regret the official declaration adopted by the Summit this past Monday contains neither measurable targets nor specific deadlines which would have made it easier to monitor implementation," Jacques Diouf, chief of FAO said.
FAO finds that directly or indirectly, agriculture provides the livelihood for 70 per cent of the world's poor.
The Summit was convened to build political momentum to increase investment in agriculture.
The FAO had proposed setting a timeline for the total eradication of hunger by 2025, and increasing assistance to $44 billion annually in agricultural development aid.
"It is a small amount if we consider the $365 billion of agriculture producer support in OECD countries in 2007, and if we consider the $1,340 billion of military expenditures by the world in the same year," Diouf said.
Over 60 heads of state and government and 191 ministers from 182 countries attended the Summit in Rome.
Despite the absence of concrete targets and deadlines, Diouf, noted that the Summit marked "an important step towards the achievement of common objective - a world free from hunger".
At the Summit, world leaders unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth sustainably and at the earliest date.
Countries had agreed to four significant commitments: to renew efforts to achieve the First Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015, to reverse the downward trend in domestic and international funding for agriculture, food security and rural development in developing countries.
The commitments also included a decision to promote new investments in agricultural production in developing countries, and improved international coordination through broadened participation by the public and private sector.
"I am convinced that together we can eradicate hunger from our planet," the head of FAO said.
"But we must move from words to actions. Let us do it for a more prosperous, more just, more equitable and more peaceful world. But above all, let us do it quickly because the poor and the hungry cannot wait." he said.
During his opening speech at the World Food Summit, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon pointed out that one child dies every five seconds from hunger- 17,000 children die every day and six million die every year.
"The world has more than enough food. Yet, today, more than one billion people are hungry. This is unacceptable," Ban said.
Ban warned that the current food crisis is a wake-up call for tomorrow since by 2050 the planet’s population will be 9.1 billion people, over two billion more than today.
The first Millennium Development Goal is that poverty should be halved by 2015.
"By 2050 we know we will need to grow 70 per cent more food. Yet, weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable. In many parts of the world water supplies are declining. Agricultural land is drying out," the head of the UN noted.
Describing hunger as the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty, Pope Benedict XVI, who also spoke at the Summit, asked for a greater understanding of the needs of the rural world.
"Access to international markets must be favoured for those products coming from the poorest areas, which today are often relegated to the margins," he said.
"In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to separate the rules of international trade from the logic of profit viewed as an end in itself.
By these estimates, 51,000 children died during the course of the three-day summit.
FAO estimates that there are 1.02 billion undernourished people in the world.
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