'WOMEN FEED THE WORLD' THEME OF SPECIAL COMMEMORATION TO MARK WORLD FOOD DAY 1998 AT HEADQUARTERS

20 October 1998

Press Release
OBV/68
SAG/13

'WOMEN FEED THE WORLD' THEME OF SPECIAL COMMEMORATION TO MARK WORLD FOOD DAY 1998 AT HEADQUARTERS

19981020 International Community Fails To Ensure Adequate Food for All People, Deputy Secretary-General Says, Calling for Political Will to End Hunger

On the eve of the new millennium, despite immense human accomplishments, the international community had failed to ensure adequate food for all people, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said this afternoon at a special event commemorating World Food Day.

The world had enough food, as well as the technology and the know-how to feed everyone, she continued. What was needed was a collective political will. A first step was to recognize the critical contribution to food security that was made by women, and to remove the obstacles they faced in carrying out their role. "In the face of poverty, natural disasters and war, it is the resilience and ingenuity of women that enables families and communities to survive", she said.

Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said full food security for all could only be achieved if the voice of the silent majority of mankind was heard. That voice belonged to women. World Food Day once more "reminds us of the tragic fate of more than 800 million people who still did not enjoy the most fundamental human right: the right to food", he said.

Didier Opertti (Uruguay), President of the General Assembly, said today's celebration provided an excellent opportunity to recognize that the daily death toll of 30,000 people due to hunger and malnutrition was morally, socially and politically unacceptable. There was a need to mobilize political will and establish guidelines to obtain universal food security.

Francesco Paolo Fulci (Italy), Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, said the aim of the FAO to halve the number of hungry and malnourished people by the year 2015 would guide its work into the new

millennium. Countries must make it a priority to achieve food security, both at the household and national levels. The challenge of feeding the world's growing population was a concern to all humanity. Women played an indispensable role in addressing that challenge.

In 1980, the Assembly called for the observance of World Food Day for the first time on 16 October 1981 and annually thereafter to heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world and to encourage attention to food production. Today's special ceremony marking World Food Day 1998 was dedicated to the theme: "women feed the world".

Statements on World Food Day

DIDIER OPERTTI (Uruguay), President of the General Assembly, said it was a pleasure to celebrate the eighteenth World Food Day, commemorating the foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It was an honour for him, given that Uruguay was one of the 44 founding members of the FAO. In 1995, Uruguay had participated in the fiftieth anniversary of the FAO. On 5 December 1980, the General Assembly recognized that food was an indispensable requirement for the well-being of humans and a fundamental human need. The same resolution welcomed the annual celebration of World Food Day and invited governments and various national, regional and international organizations to contribute in the commemoration.

Over the last 18 years, more than 150 countries had celebrated World Food Day year after year, he said. Many of them had also used it as an opportunity to reflect on the global problem of food scarcity, which affects 800 million men, women and children. Today's celebration provided an excellent opportunity to examine the world's collective conscience and recognize that the daily death toll of 30,000 people due to hunger and malnutrition was morally, socially and politically unacceptable. The World Food Summit held in Rome in 1996 was a milestone in the global fight against hunger. Heads of State at that meeting adopted the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and Plan of Action containing strategies to establish universal food security and obtain food for all. To achieve that objective in 30 years, the international community had to double the present capacity to produce food in the world. There was a need to mobilize political will and establish guidelines to obtain universal food security. Various sectors of society, including governments, non-governmental organizations, media, educators and women's organizations needed to coordinate their efforts to achieve food security for the family, domestically and internationally. When financial markets were fragile and producing negative effects, such as those today, providing food security was an acute need and priority.

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The theme of today's celebration, "women feed the world", was very appropriate given that women produce half of the food grown presently, he said. Women combine work in the fields, work at home, care of families and other functions to provide the basic needs of the family.

Greater awareness of global hunger had to be mobilized, he said. Approaches to deal with the issue had to cease treating women as second class citizens and farmers. A convergence of efforts in the political and social spheres was needed to give priority to food security. The problem also required rationality and feeling. The Assembly's adoption in 1979 of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women had marked a milestone in efforts towards gender equality. In conclusion, he hoped that today's celebration would be a true catalyst and not just a celebration. The celebration would only be worthwhile if it provided an opportunity to renew commitments. He also thanked the Director-General of the FAO, Jacques Diouf, for reminding everyone that the common cause was to feed all of mankind.

LOUISE FRECHETTE, Deputy Secretary-General, said that on the eve of the new millennium, despite immense human accomplishments, "we have failed at the most basic level: to ensure adequate food for all people". Each year, World Food Day was a reminder that the war against hunger was still being fought. More than 800 million people suffered from chronic hunger or malnutrition; 200 million of them children. Hungry people could not fulfil their human potential as individuals, nor as a member of society.

The world had enough food, as well as the technology and the know-how to feed everyone, she continued. What was needed was a collective political will. A first step was to recognize the critical contribution to food security that was made by women, and to remove the obstacles they faced in carrying out their role. "In the face of poverty, natural disasters and war, it is the resilience and ingenuity of women that enables families and communities to survive."

She said agricultural development policies did not reflect the needs of women adequately. If they did so on paper, they were often not translated into practice. She congratulated the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, for his decision to dedicate this year's World Food Day to "the women who feed the world". That theme provided an opportunity to pay tribute to the multiple roles and responsibilities that women had in agriculture and the entire food chain.

She said since it was founded, the United Nations had worked towards the eradication of malnutrition and poverty. It had recognized women not only as victims of the vicious circle of hunger and poverty, but also as indispensable

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partners in the work to break that circle. The post-cold war era had allowed the Organization to redouble its efforts for the advancement of rural women. Half a century of experience had taught the United Nations that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social and political problems could be found without the full participation and empowerment of women.

She called on all development partners -- governmental and non- governmental -- to recognize the crucial contribution that women made to agricultural production and food security. She urged them also to adopt innovative approaches to development and agricultural development that took such contributions fully into account.

FRANCESCO PAOLO FULCI (Italy), Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, said the challenge of feeding the world's growing population was a concern to all humanity. Women played an indispensable role in addressing that challenge. Within different cultures and societies, women's role as providers of food was crucial and significant to survival. Also, in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, agriculture was becoming a responsibility shared between genders.

In industrialized countries, women played a significant role in mechanized and commercialized agricultural production, he said. In developing countries, they were deeply involved in production, particularly of basic foodstuffs, weeding, harvesting, processing and trading of food products. Together with their domestic activities, their workload was back-breaking, especially in poverty-stricken and environmentally degraded areas where the margins of survival were very narrow and often depended on women's strategies for coping. The struggle to ensure adequate food for families, communities and States was as old as the history of human civilization.

Who could forget that every minute of the day, about a dozen children under the age of five died from hunger and malnutrition? he asked. Those children, along with men and women who suffer from chronic malnutrition and hunger, came from the ranks of the rural poor who had not had the means to grow or access food to ensure their survival, he said. The aim of the FAO to half the number of hungry and malnourished people by the year 2015 would guide its work into the new millennium. Countries must make it a priority to achieve food security at the household and national levels and to live up to the commitments made at the World Food Summit. Unfortunately, country data on human resources in agriculture were scarce and, when available, rarely distinguished between women's and men's contributions to agricultural production. Women also tended to be engaged in unpaid or grossly underpaid work. Also, in many countries, women were treated unfairly in terms of property rights; inheritance; marriage or divorce; and the rights to acquire nationality, manage property or seek employment.

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He noted the FAO's contributions to the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council in July and to the high-level review of the progress made for the advancement of women. The FAO's ongoing contributions to the work of the Economic and Social Council would help ensure that issues of concern to women in agriculture received the attention they deserved from the world community. He invited the FAO to play an active role in the United Nations system-wide review of follow-up to the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. A system-wide approach was needed in regard to food security and rural development efforts, particularly in the area of the advancement of women. Efforts were needed to coordinate policy with normative and operational activities. That consideration would be especially important during the Economic and Social Council high-level segment next year devoted to the "role of employment and work in the poverty eradication: the empowerment and advancement of women". Finally, when women and men, farmers, researchers, legislators, decision-makers, civil society and the private sector worked together, the world would be on the right path towards eradicating hunger and poverty.

JACQUES DIOUF, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said during the upcoming celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights he would have liked to announce that "we had succeeded in eliminating malnutrition and hunger on the planet". Instead, World Food Day once more "reminds us of the tragic fate of more than 800 million people who still did not enjoy the most fundamental human right: the right to food". The consequences of such a morally unacceptable situation were disastrous, both from a human and economic point view.

Today he wanted to pay tribute to the legion of heroines: the women who fed the world and contributed to food security. At the World Food Summit, 186 countries had paid homage to the fundamental contribution made by women to food security and they had recognized the necessity of ensuring equality between men and women. The Plan of Action adopted at the Summit promoted the full participation of women in the economy and the introduction of legislation that would ensure them equitable access to productive resources, such as credit, land and water, and control over resources. Full food security for all could only be achieved if the voice of the silent majority of mankind was heard. That voice belonged to women.

In Africa, women were cultivating more than 100 different plants on land that was formally used by men. Such ingenuity and diversity ensured better food and contributed to food security. Women were also now participating in the trading of food products. The results achieved by women when they had access to finances -- even limited finances -- were phenomenal. Women were always solvent and reliable. However, the contributions of women in the

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processing and marketing of food were never counted in national or agricultural statistics.

He said when women had access to resources and finances they usually became dynamic development partners. The FAO had launched a special programme for food security which was operating in 37 countries with food shortages. The programme was being formulated in another 30 countries. That programme paid special attention to the analysis of gender specific socio-economic problems.

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