IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE, ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SAYS YOUNG PEOPLE MUST BE INVOLVED IN EFFORTS TO ENSURE FOOD SECURITY

Press Release
GA/SM/110
OBV/114

IN WORLD FOOD DAY MESSAGE, ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SAYS YOUNG PEOPLE MUST BE INVOLVED IN EFFORTS TO ENSURE FOOD SECURITY

Following is the text of the message of General Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia) for the occasion of World Food Day, which will be observed on 16 October:

As we observe World Food Day, first proclaimed in 1979 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), I am haunted by this eyewitness description of a malnourished five-year-old girl: “She had on a bright pink dress, and her little arms and legs were like sticks coming out of it. She gave me a look that was very old and very, very sad”.

Behind this chilling account are even more grim statistics: there are some 830 million hungry and chronically malnourished people in the world today, most of them women and children; young people make up one fifth of the world’s population, but vast numbers of them lack economic access to food. As a consequence, they face severe problems of hunger and malnutrition, which are further exacerbated by a lack of access to education, health care and basic services that all human beings require. World Food Day is both a reminder of their plight and a call to action.

The Day aims to heighten public awareness of the world food situation and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against the scourges of hunger, malnutrition and poverty. The General Assembly endorsed its observance in 1980, recognizing that “food is a requisite for human survival and well-being and a fundamental human necessity”. Mindful of that basic human requirement, leaders at the 1996 World Food Summit pledged to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015.

This year's World Food Day theme, “Youth against Hunger”, is most appropriate, having been chosen to underscore both the role of young people in the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to provide a strategic opportunity for involving them in the campaign to achieve food security for all.

- 2 - Press Release GA/SM/110 OBV/114 15 October 1999

The theme points to challenges, as well as solutions. The challenges facing a hungry youth are obvious. Without adequate food, young people will not develop physically, and the toll on their mental health and spiritual well-being is tremendous. What follows next in this vicious cycle is the decline of a society, for a society without strong youth is a society with a weak future.

Erasing hunger and undernourishment will help break this negative spiral. While emergency humanitarian assistance is essential in helping the hungry and severely malnourished among us, it is only one factor on a continuum from relief to development. Factors, other than a lack of food, contribute to malnutrition. Disease suppresses appetite and compromises the body's ability to absorb nutrients. Controlling disease requires attention to safe water and sanitation. Safe water and sanitation require infrastructure, which is a goal and an engine of development.

We know from experience that the number of hungry and malnourished people rises under the impact of debt, structural adjustment and poverty. Only a macro-economic approach, based on debt relief, human- centred development and poverty-eradication strategies, will succeed in the long term.

In any undertaking to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, it is essential to involve young people in ensuring food security. We must foster robust youth who can help “weave a blanket of food security” to meet the world's growing needs. This requires more than food aid; it demands a holistic approach to development.

In that context, it is imperative that youth concerns be taken into account when setting development agendas and formulating national policy. Their energy and creativity must be mobilized by including them in the elaboration of development policies, and further harnessed through special programmes that provide young people with the tools they need to advocate for food security.

In this way, “Youth against Hunger” can be transformed from a slogan into a weapon against the pernicious effects of hunger and malnutrition on our young and on our future.

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