GOVERNMENTS LINK WITH CIVIL SOCIETY PARTNERS ON FOOD SECURITY AT MADRID MEETING

MADRID, 27 January -- National delegations meeting today under the co-chairmanship of Spanish Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated support for universal access to food, food production, strengthened social protection systems in the face of a downward-spiralling global economy and increased investment in food security.

A key agreement in the Statement of the Madrid High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All is to establish a global partnership.  The chairman´s Statement, issued today, calls for a contact group to reach out to stakeholders including farmers’ organizations, civil society organizations, women’s organizations, the private sector, developing country Governments and regional and international organizations.

The two-day meeting in Madrid, hosted and organized by the Spanish Government and co-sponsored by Spain and the United Nations, brought together 62 ministers from more than 120 countries, civil society leaders, and UN agencies grouped together by the Secretary-General in a High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis.

The Statement reflects urgent concern that the number of malnourished in the world has risen to 960 million and called for substantially increased financial resources and development assistance.  It endorsed measures outlined in the United Nations Task Force’s Comprehensive Framework for Action to meet immediate urgent needs while also building sustainable agricultural systems and stronger social safety nets.

These efforts dovetail with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the co-chairs noted, especially the first objective, to eradicate hunger and poverty.  According to United Nations statistics, 75 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas dependent on agricultural economies.

At the meeting, the Spanish Government committed to €200 million per year for five years for food security efforts, and said that it will undertake to stimulate similar contributions by other nations.

The High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All follows through on the June 2008 “food summit” in Rome.  In the 5 June Rome Declaration, 181 States and the European Community pledged to alleviate the suffering caused by soaring food prices, stimulate agricultural development, food and smallholder farmer production and address obstacles to food access and adequate nutrition.  At this meeting, Prime Minister Zapatero offered to host a follow-up meeting in Madrid.

For information on the meeting and pictures, see www.ransa2009.org; on the High-Level Task Force, see www.un.org/issues/food/taskforce.

For video material:  A food-related b-roll is available on the UNifeed website (www.un.org/unifeed) for download in broadcast-quality PAL and NTSC.

For media inquires, contact Tim Wall of the United Nations Department of Public Information in New York, tel.:  +1 212 963 5851, mobile:  +1 213 447 5954.

For the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Nuria Felipe Soria, Spanish mobile:  +34 647 208 657, e-mail:  n.felipesoria@ifad.org; and Farhana Haque-Rahman, Rome tel.:  +39 06 5459 2485, mobile:  +39 335 737 4859, e-mail:  f.haquerahman@ifad.org.

For the Food and Agriculture Organization, Germán Rojas, Spanish tel.:  +34 91 347 1717, mobile:  +34 671 649 955, e-mail:  german.rojas@fao.org.

For the World Food Programme, Brenda Barton, tel.:  +39 06 6513, e-mail:  Brenda.barton@wfp.org; Alejandro López-Chicheri, Spanish mobile:  +34 671 308 344, e-mail:  alejandro.chicheri@wfp.org.

For the World Bank in Spain, Julia Barrera, e-mail:  jbarrera@worldbank.org, Spanish tel.:  +34 61 713 6411, mobile:  +33 66 101 2728.

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For information media • not an official record