News Focus: Food crisis

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Secretary-General

For more images and headlines, view a Photo Story on the UN response to the spiraling food prices.

"I will invest the full force of my office to galvanize international action, starting right now."

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- Food Security: Our forgotten crisis | World Food Crisis: Through Africa with hope | The Right War | Water is Life | The New Face Of Hunger

“We have agreed on a series of concrete measures that need to be taken in the short, medium and long terms,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a joint press conference in Bern, Switzerland, following a meeting of the executive heads of the United Nations system organizations.

The group, known as the Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), set out a common strategy in support of developing country governance to confront the global food crisis.

The CEB also decided to establish, under the leadership of the Secretary-General, a Task Force on the Global Food Crisis to create a prioritized plan of action and coordinate its implementation. The Task Force held its first meeting on 12 May 2008.

UN sets up top-level team to promote unified response

The Secretary-General's High-Level Task Force on Global Food Security Crisis

Ban Ki-moon chairs the first meeting of the Task Force

Background: On 29 April 2008, the Secretary-General announced the establishment of a United Nations Task Force on the Global Food Crisis.

The goal: to create a prioritized plan of action and coordinate its implementation

The composition: Chaired by the Secretary-General, the Task Force brings together the Heads of UN specialized agencies, funds and programmes, Bretton Woods institutions and relevant parts of the UN Secretariat. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, acts as Coordinator.

"My Task Force will study the root causes of the crisis and propose solutions – to be executed decisively through coordinated global action – at the upcoming food summit in Rome early in June," the Secretary-General told the press on 5 May.

Economic and Social Council

Economic and Social Council President calls for action to turn ‘threatening situation into renaissance’ as special session on food crisis concludes.

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Boosting agricultural production vital to solving food crisis, ECOSOC chief says

The UN system

The UN system, including specialized agencies, Funds and Programmes and Bretton Woods institutions, has set out a common strategy to confront the global food crisis.

· Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

· International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

· International Monetary Fund (IMF)

· Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

· UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)

· UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS)

· UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)

· UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

· UN Development Programmes (UNDP)

· UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

· World Bank

· World Food Programme (WFP)

· World Health Organization (WHO)

· World Trade Organization (WTO)

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger tops the list of eight MDGs — a set of timebound and measurable goals and targets in combatting world's ills approved in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit.