SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES ACTION TO REDUCE GLOBAL HUNGER BY HALF BY 2015, IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE
Press Release
SG/SM/6362
OBV/15
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES ACTION TO REDUCE GLOBAL HUNGER BY HALF BY 2015, IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE
19971016 ADVANCE TEXT Following is the text of a statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of World Food Day (16 October), to be delivered at a special ceremony at United Nations Headquarters on 21 October:World Food Day once again serves to remind us that something so basic remains so distant for so many.
Eight-hundred million people are chronically hungry. This number represents roughly one out of every seven people on earth and includes more than 200 million children under the age of five. Millions more are plagued by blindness, retarded growth and other ailments related to hunger and malnutrition, and by the debilitating effects of diets lacking in essential vitamins and minerals. Twenty-nine countries, mostly in Africa, are experiencing food emergencies.
On the threshold of a new millennium, the age-old problem of hunger is tragically widespread. As long as such suffering is allowed to continue -- for it is within our power to stop it -- our hopes for an era of enduring peace and sustainable development will go unfulfilled.
This year's World Food Day theme, "Investing in Food Security", highlights the question of resources. Recent years have seen not only a decline in official development assistance (ODA), but also a drop in agriculture's share of aid. Moreover, countries most threatened by food insecurity are not investing enough in the agricultural sector or in the rural economy. These are disturbing trends.
Investment is not just a question of building irrigation systems, roads and other infrastructure. Investing in human resources, and particularly in the education of women and girls, is just as vital. Women produce up to 80 per cent of the basic foodstuffs in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. In some regions of Africa, 60 per cent of the households are headed by women. Indeed, it is by now common wisdom that investing in the education of women and girls has the highest rate of return of any type of investment in development.
In the past 50 years, modern farming practices, advances in agricultural science and new applications of biotechnology have helped increase world food production at an unprecedented rate -- outpacing the doubling of the world population that has taken place over the same period. But if much has been achieved in the fight to eliminate hunger, much more remains to be done.
At last November's World Food Summit in Rome, world leaders pledged to reduce the number of hungry and malnourished people by half by the year 2015. This is a practical, attainable target. I call on Governments to rise to this challenge. The private sector and civil society must be our close partners in this effort. Their resources and expertise are indispensable.
The United Nations, for its part, has worked since its inception to help break the vicious circle of hunger, malnutrition and poverty. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), along with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), together with the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have all been deeply involved. Today, in the spirit of United Nations reform, each has taken steps to improve its effectiveness and coordination. Here, too, we must do more.
The world has enough food. What it lacks is the political will to ensure that all people have access to this bounty, that all people enjoy food security.
On World Food Day 1997, let us pledge ourselves anew to guaranteeing that no person goes to sleep hungry, that no mother has to starve herself in order to feed her children, that no child need scavenge or beg so as to eat.
Let us not allow hunger to undermine every person's right to be a healthy, productive member of society. Let us not permit hunger to undermine society's hopes for the future. We must win the battle against hunger.
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