SECRETARY-GENERAL CONGRATULATES WORLD FOOD PRIZE WINNER CATHERINE BERTINI, IN VIDEO MESSAGE TO SYMPOSIUM IN DES MOINES, IOWA

SECRETARY-GENERAL CONGRATULATES WORLD FOOD PRIZE WINNER CATHERINE BERTINI,

IN VIDEO MESSAGE TO SYMPOSIUM IN DES MOINES, IOWA

Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s video message to the World Food Prize Symposium, held in Des Moines, Iowa, 16 October:

I add my voice to yours, on this World Food Day, in congratulating Catherine Bertini on winning this year’s World Food Prize.  She fully deserves it. 

Thanks to her outstanding leadership, the World Food Programme is today on the front lines of the world’s battle against hunger.  Its staff have made many sacrifices in the line of duty, and have helped save millions from the scourge of famine.  Let’s congratulate them, too. 

I am also very pleased that you are reviewing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.  At a time when many difficult issues divide the international community, these Goals are a shining example of consensus among all nations on what is needed to build a better world.  Let’s all work together to achieve them  -– and especially to halve world hunger -– by 2015!

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