PRESS BRIEFING BY FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION

PRESS BRIEFING BY FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION

With hunger being as much a cause as an effect of poverty, getting rid of it was an essential first step in the quest for poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing this morning.

And yet, if current trends continued, the number of undernourished people was projected to fall by 2015 from some 800 million to 580 million –- well short of the 1996 World Food Summit target of halving that number to 400 million, said Charles Riemenschneider, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director for North America, as he briefed the press on the forthcoming “World Food Summit:  Five Years Later”, which will to take place in Rome from 10 to 13 June.

At the conclusion of the 1996 Summit, 112 heads or deputy heads of State and government and over 70 high-level officials from various countries adopted the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and Plan of Action, he said, pledging their political will and commitment “to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015”.  The June event was going to consider the progress achieved in the past five years and concentrate on ways and means of accelerating that process.  It would give governments, the international community and civil society an opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to the outcome of the 1996 summit.  

Now, it was  necessary to move beyond those broad commitments and make a statement in very specific terms of how all concerned would work together to accelerate time-bound actions in support of hunger eradication by 2015,

Mr. Riemenschneider continued.  There was strong agreement on the need to identify the constraints that had emerged in trying to reach the goals of the World Food Summit.  For that reason, there would be round-table discussions with prime ministers and other high-level officials on "where we stand" with World Food Summit Plan of Action.  There would also be non-governmental organization interaction with political leaders during a multi-stakeholder dialogue that would take place during the meeting, as well as a number of parallel events.  The FAO would host a number of briefings and meetings on issues ranging from success stories in agricultural development to subregional food security strategies and gender issues.

Among the positive developments of the last decade, he mentioned an emerging broad international consensus that the focus of development assistance must be on achieving the international development goal of halving poverty levels by 2015, as well as a large measure of consensus on the need to raise official development assistance (ODA) allocations towards the set goal of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).  He was encouraged by the seriousness with which both rich and poor countries had approached the International Conference on Financing for Development and the progress in reducing indebtedness under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.  Civil society movements were emerging as powerful advocates for a more equitable world, and many non-governmental organizations were already deeply engaged in providing support to small farming communities.

Turning to the challenges to food security, he said that most developed and developing countries alike had fallen short in meeting the obligations undertaken in 1996.  The resources set aside to address hunger had been falling, rather than rising.  The FAO believed that current investment levels in agriculture and supporting infrastructure and services fell some $30 billion short of the

$180 billion needed annually in developing countries to reduce the number of the hungry to 400 million by no later than 2015.  Mobilizing the political will to reverse that disturbing trend was a key goal of the five-year review of the World Food Summit.  Among other issues to be addressed were natural and human-induced disasters; an increase in the number of countries afflicted with conflicts; globalization; and development of international trade.

Responding to several questions about the definitions of hunger, malnutrition and undernutrition, Mr. Riemenschneider said that there were no fixed numbers involved.  Based on a complex formula involving such factors as caloric intake, countries’ age profiles and energy consumption, those numbers varied from country to country.  However, on the average, people with daily consumption of less than 2,300 calories was considered to be undernourished.  The notions of hunger and poverty were closely interrelated.  Hungry people were clearly poor, and poverty was a major factor in determining who was hungry.  According to estimates, about 800 million people were undernourished.

To a question regarding genetically modified foods, he said that today enough food was being produced in the world to feed everybody.  To increase yields and meet the needs in the future, biotechnology could become an important tool.  However, each product had to be looked at individually, on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the issues of food safety and environmental concerns.   With the challenges ahead, possible new technologies that could make a difference should not be thrown out.

Asked about the number of heads of government and State expected to attend the June event, he said that those figures would be released approximately one week ahead of the Summit.  The numbers were encouraging so far.  He hoped countries would be well represented.

To another question, he said that the issue of food security was becoming increasingly prominent.  Today, there was broader interest on behalf of donor countries, and more players recognized that to achieve the overarching goal of reducing poverty in half by 2015, it was necessary to address hunger directly.  Today, a favourable environment had been created that could help to reach the goals of world food security.  The upcoming Summit needed to evaluate the progress and, if it turned out to be insufficient, to determine the means of moving forward.

Asked about the reasons for FAO’s pessimism regarding the achievements in the past five years, he said that the rate of decline in the numbers related to hunger had slowed in recent years.  That was bad news, but the good news was that hunger had declined.  Some 58 developing nations had registered a decrease in the proportion of their population labelled as undernourished.  Although the proportional decrease in many cases had not been sufficient to offset the effect of population growth, 32 countries had reduced their hunger numbers in absolute terms, as well.  Good governance, policies and investment were required to rectify the situation.

Responding to a comment regarding the Millennium Development Goals, he said that they would not be attainable without addressing the issue of hunger. That would involve developing agriculture and rural enterprise.

Did the estimate of $180 billion to meet the goal of halving the number of the hungry by 2015 involve cash? a correspondent asked.  Mr. Riemenschneider replied that it was the gross investment needed to achieve better productivity and make the food system to work.  It involved farmers, input industries, irrigation, labour and so on.  Coming from both public and private sources, it also factored in the ODA and debt relief figures.

Regarding the situation in South Africa, he said that it was important to mitigate the effects of droughts and other natural disasters.  While the Summit was expected to address more general issues of food security, FAO was giving an early warning regarding the situation in South Africa.  There was a growing recognition that the weather situation there was unfavourable.  Through immediate action by donors, it was possible to avoid serious problems and avert a catastrophe.  The recent track record in that respect was actually quite good.

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