IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS "DEVELOPMENT THAT DOES NOT PROMOTE FOOD SECURITY FOR ALL PEOPLE HAS WEAK FOUNDATIONS"

Press Release
SG/SM/7152
OBV/111

IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS ‘DEVELOPMENT THAT DOES NOT PROMOTE FOOD SECURITY FOR ALL PEOPLE HAS WEAK FOUNDATIONS’

Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message for World Food Day, which will be observed on 16 October:

Every year, World Food Day is a sad reminder that millions of people in the world do not have enough to eat. In the year 1999, it is also a reminder that whatever technological advances we have achieved in this century of progress, we have not been able to eradicate hunger. One cannot help thinking that we would have been able to reach that goal if we had really made it a top priority.

Because of economic shocks, conflicts, natural disasters and deepening poverty, roughly 830 million people suffer from hunger today. The statistics for children are particularly horrifying. An estimated 192 million children below the age of five suffer from protein and calorie deficiencies. Each day, malnutrition is a significant factor in the deaths of 11,000 of them. That's one child dying every eight seconds for lack of food.

Children and, indeed, entire societies pay the cost of insufficient food in many other ways too. Malnourished children will not get a second chance, because good nutrition later cannot compensate for the physical and mental damage done in early childhood. Education suffers when food is in short supply because children (most of them girls) are taken out of school, and it is hard for those who stay to learn on an empty stomach. Later on, lack of education, combined with poor health, will make these people less able to contribute to the life of their communities.

Eradicating hunger is the first step to fighting poverty. But the poor are caught in a hunger trap, unable to take the steps that would help them build a better future. Millions of people meet their immediate food needs in ways which undermine their longer-term food security. Families fighting hunger are often unable to preserve the few assets they have, much less invest in new ones.

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Clearly, development that does not promote food security for all people has weak foundations. On this World Food Day devoted to youth against hunger, we are reminded that today feeding hungry children is not only a moral obligation, but a necessary investment in the development of entire countries.

We can break the cycle of hunger and poverty if we have the will to do so. Let us prove it to ourselves. Let us make sure that, in the future, no day of the year has to be "No Food Day" for anyone in the world.

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