18 November 2009
Speaking from the World Food Summit in Rome, International Development Minister Mike Foster said this morning:
"Tonight a billion people will go to bed hungry because they cannot afford to buy enough food to meet their daily needs. A deplorable situation, one that has no right to exist in the 21st century.
Ensuring food security is not just about money and technology, though both help.
It is not even primarily about growing more food…at a global level there is no shortage of food. Last year saw the world’s biggest cereal harvest ever.
This year’s will be nearly as big.
Ending hunger requires food to be both available and affordable.
Farmers in some countries in Africa have produced huge maize surpluses in recent years.
Yet over a quarter of their populations still go hungry because of poverty…in simple terms they can’t afford to buy the food that is there in abundance.
The world cannot continue staggering from one food crisis to the next.
Food security has been given top billing at numerous international meetings and conferences over the last year.
Many good words have been spoken about commitment, and much money - $20 billion over the next three years - has been pledged.
Now is the time for action. For too long, leaders in rich and poor countries alike have failed to take the tough decisions needed to ensure that international trading, financial and investment systems are working properly.
For too long governments in developing countries have not given food security and rural development the priority they deserve within national development plans, made even more difficult with the onset of climate change.
Too often it is assumed that Ministries of Agriculture have sole responsibility for delivering what we now know is an incredibly complex agenda.
In practice many ministries must share responsibility for delivering food security.
Some countries are already showing the way. This “whole of government” approach is being championed by the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme, CAADP.
An approach that is consistent with our vision of a Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security. So far [12] CAADP Compacts have been signed setting out binding commitments by governments and other stakeholders.
It provides an excellent model that should be replicated in many countries. ‘What this conference needs to deliver is not more fine words. Nor does it need to deliver more financial pledges.
Instead it needs to ensure that what has been promised so far is urgently translated into action.
It needs developing country leaders to return home and show leadership in mobilising all their key ministries towards a common goal of food security.
Finance ministers to allocate sufficient budget resources, drive equitable economic growth, and so reduce poverty.
Health ministers to address malnutrition, particularly of children. Social Security ministers to protect and support the poor and most vulnerable. Environment ministers to ensure sustainability.
Trade ministers to encourage private enterprise, and the free movement of commodities within the region. And transport, water, and power ministers to ensure provision of vital inputs to the agriculture sector.
It needs donors to continue in their efforts to help eradicate poverty, because poverty is the root cause of hunger.
In this regard, the UK is on track to meet the 0.7% GDP target by 2013, and plans to introduce legislation at the first possible opportunity to enshrine this commitment in law.
And this conference needs all governments to go away and use all their political, diplomatic, and technical resources to get international systems working better…for us this means working with others to restore global economic growth, and get international financial systems working more effectively.
It means getting the Doha Development Round back on track. It means continuing to work with others to dismantle protectionist and distortionary subsidy schemes and obstacles to free trade.
And it means ensuring that agriculture and food security continue to be given the highest international attention.
Thank you."
ENDS
For further information, contact Michael Haig on 020 7023 0600, e-mail m-haig@dfid.gov.uk or call our Public Enquiries Point on 0845 300 4100. DFID News is available on our website at www.dfid.gov.uk
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