SECRETARY-GENERAL'S STATEMENT ON WORLD FOOD DAY
Press Release
SG/SM/6096
FAO/3641
SECRETARY-GENERAL'S STATEMENT ON WORLD FOOD DAY
19961025 Following is the text of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's statement on the occasion of World Food Day, observed at Headquarters on 25 October:Today, one person in five is hungry. This is the global challenge we must face, as we meet today, to observe World Food Day. "Fighting Hunger and Malnutrition" is a subject that concerns us all.
Almost 800 million people are chronically hungry. Millions more suffer from what has been termed "hidden" or "masked" hunger that reduces the capacity of men, women and children to live healthy, productive lives. Two hundred to three hundred million people suffer from iodine deficiency; 40 million children suffer from a deficiency of vitamin A; and nearly 200 million children under the age of five have severe or chronic protein calorie deficiencies.
In a world that can feed us all, poverty breeds hunger and malnutrition. The aching reality of hunger, the debilitating diseases of malnutrition affect productivity and growth, leading to the loss of hope in the future, to social disintegration. This in turn reinforces the hunger cycle. Poverty, hunger and malnutrition have long-term implications for human welfare, for production, and, ultimately, for our very survival.
There is no greater challenge to the international community, no greater challenge to the United Nations system, and no greater challenge to the work of each and every one of us, than to break the vicious circle of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Nowhere are these issues more relevant than in Africa. Unless we act swiftly and decisively, it is estimated that as many as 300 million Africans may be suffering from chronic malnutrition by the year 2010.
The United Nations system is responding to this challenge. Together, we are endeavouring to break the grip of hunger on our future and the future of our children. The United Nations works to create the political, economic and social conditions that will allow us to win the battle against hunger. The United Nations works to transform the hungry and the malnourished into effective participants in the growth and sustainable development of their societies.
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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides relief assistance to millions of refugees and displaced persons who have had to leave their homes and their fields, and have no access to food, because of conflict or natural disasters. The World Food Programme (WFP) provides assistance for some 50 million people, half of them victims of natural or man-made emergencies. The WFP has thus provided 1.6 million tons of food in 1995 to cope with emergency needs. A United Nations food package can literally make the difference between life and death, survival and starvation.
But responding to emergencies is only one part of the struggle. The United Nations also works to ensure that hunger and malnutrition are eradicated in the long-term. The eradication of hunger and malnutrition can only be achieved if we attack their root causes. Harnessing all the productive forces of society to these ends is a key objective of the work of the United Nations system.
The work of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is, of course, central to the objective of ensuring and advancing food security. The contributions of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, with its emphasis on poverty alleviation, and of the WFP in its developmental work, are also vital. Within the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supports sustainable farming projects around the world, and helps to reinforce the capacity of societies to feed themselves. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has embarked upon crucial programmes to reduce the incidence of malnutrition, and, as a result, millions of children have replaced hunger with hope.
Fighting hunger and malnutrition is also a main focus of the strengthened cooperation between the World Bank and the other organizations of the United Nations system. It is a key dimension of the concept of sustainable development that is providing a unifying framework for the work of United Nations organizations and agencies in following up the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. And it is a crucial component of the renewed, concerted attack on poverty that is being waged at present by efforts of all the economic and social sectors of the United Nations system.
Hunger has been reduced significantly in some parts of the world. But more, much more, remains to be done. First, we must ensure access to food by attacking poverty -- the root cause of hunger and malnutrition. At the World Summit on Social Development, held at Copenhagen in 1995, governments committed themselves to the goals of eliminating hunger and malnutrition, and to promoting food security, as an integral part of a concerted attack on poverty.
Second, we must ensure the sustainability of agriculture and food production. The link between environmental deterioration and long-term hunger is clear. Populations that grow too rapidly in comparison to the resource base are also a cause of hunger and malnutrition. At Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and in Cairo in 1994, governments committed themselves to achieve the
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objectives of increasing food production and enhancing food security in a sustainable way. And at Istanbul this year, the international community focused its attention on food and nutrition in urban areas.
Third, the economic and health status of women is a key factor. The commitments taken at Beijing, at the World Conference on Women last year, must be implemented. The empowerment of women is especially important in the
production of food and the provision of basic food needs.
Fourth, the hunger and malnutrition crisis must be attacked where it is more widespread. Sustainable agriculture and food security for the future development of Africa should be a key dimension of the United Nations System- Wide Special Initiative on Africa. The Special Initiative underlines the commitment of the United Nations to work with African governments to improve water supplies, combat desertification and improve soil quality.
Although overall food production has so far managed to keep pace with population growth, the world's resources are limited. Throughout the world, enormous technological advances in growing techniques, water management, soil conservation and biodiversity have been made in recent years. Impressive development in storage and processing have reduced waste and led to rural economic growth.
In a globalizing world, we must ensure that technological advances bring benefits to the developing economies, where the need is greatest. Sustainable farming is the key. Improved management of all resources will allow us to keep pace with a growing world population, even as we recognize the need to take responsibility for a rapidly growing world population.
Next month, the World Food Summit in Rome will provide another crucial opportunity for decision makers to reinforce and refocus their efforts to end hunger and malnutrition. The Summit provides the world community with the opportunity to marshal the global consensus and commitment required for the eradication of hunger and malnutrition, and the achievement of food security for all. Let us all work to make the World Food Summit a success, for hunger must be eradicated, just as many diseases have been eradicated.
We must all engage in the struggle against hunger and malnutrition. Governments, meeting at conferences and the deliberative bodies of the system, have called upon us to eradicate hunger and malnutrition from our societies. The organizations of the United Nations system are cooperating, as never before, to ensure that we end these scourges of humanity. It has become clear that our struggle against hunger and malnutrition cannot be won without greater cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the private sector and all components of civil society.
Today, as we observe World Food Day, we are called to join in a collective struggle. Governments, civil society, and the United Nations all must put forth the utmost effort and dedication.
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