DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR VICIOUS CIRCLE OF HUNGER AND POVERTY TO BE BROKEN, "FOR THE YOUTH OF TOMORROW, AND WITH THOSE OF TODAY"

Press Release
DSG/SM/72
OBV/118

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR VICIOUS CIRCLE OF HUNGER AND POVERTY TO BE BROKEN, ‘FOR THE YOUTH OF TOMORROW, AND WITH THOSE OF TODAY’

Following are the remarks of Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette on the occasion of World Food Day, which were delivered at a special Headquarters observance today on her behalf by Under-Secretary- General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai:

I am honoured to be with you today for this World Food Day, marking the fifty-fourth anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And I am pleased to have this opportunity to salute once again the efforts of the FAO and its Secretary-General, Jacques Diouf, to help human beings fulfil the most basic of their rights: the right to adequate food every day.

Every year, World Food Day provides an opportunity to reflect on what has been done, is being done and should be done to overcome hunger and malnutrition in the world.

This year, the observance is particularly significant. As the twentieth century comes to a close and we look back on the incredible technological and scientific progress it has seen, the fact that 800 million people still suffer from hunger and malnutrition seems more unacceptable than ever. But, as the next century dawns, the time also seems more propitious than ever for doing something about it.

This year=ðs theme -- AðYouth against Hunger@ð-- is definitely in tune with this idea of a fresh start. But it is appropriate in other ways too.

The first reason why young people should be associated in our efforts is that when food is scarce, they start paying the price very early, even before they are born. When mothers are poorly nourished, they will often give birth to underweight babies. Then, weak and hungry parents will have trouble meeting the specific feeding needs of infants. And inadequate nutrition in the first five years of life inflicts mental and physical damage that is extremely difficult to reverse.

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Children in hungry households pay another price too. Many of them, especially girls, do not get to go to school because they have to contribute to their family’s subsistence. And those who are lucky enough to go have to learn on an empty stomach.

Coupled with poor health, lack of education will leave these children unable to realize their full potential in later life; unable, therefore, to contribute as they might have done to the life of their society. Their limited productivity will, in turn, reduce their chance of lifting themselves and their families out of poverty.

This leads me to another reason why hunger is truly a matter with which young people should be concerned. As both a cause and a result of poverty, hunger is perpetuated and often transmitted from one generation to another. Many victims of hunger, forced to devote all their day-to- day energy and resources to finding food for themselves, are reduced to sacrificing their long-term food security.

In other words, they find it impossible to lay the foundations for development and prepare a better future for the generations to come. We must break this vicious circle of hunger and poverty, for the youth of tomorrow, and with those of today.

In 1996, in Rome, we set ourselves the target of reducing by half the number of victims of hunger in the world by 2015. This commitment also engages the next generation, for they are the ones who, through force of circumstance, will have to finish the work we have started.

We must not forget, either, that the great majority of young people are living in developing countries, where hunger and malnutrition are the most prevalent, and where population growth threatens to make food security even more problematic in the future. World Food Day is the ideal opportunity to tell all young people that we are counting on them to help us create the conditions for a lasting victory over hunger.

But, if we want to be able to count on their energy and creativity, we must give them access to education and training. If we want to stop the mass exodus of young people from the countryside and farming, we must offer them a future if they stay there. If we want young people throughout the world to feel directly involved, we must show them that we take them seriously. That is what we are doing