Progress in the implementation of the World
Food Summit Plan of Action
Statement delivered to the Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC)
Geneva, Switzerland, 22 July 1999
Mr President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me at the outset to say how much I regret not
having been present at your high- level segment earlier
this month. My schedule did not permit me to participate
twice at this session at a short interval. I therefore
deemed it my duty to intervene personally today, in order
to fulfil the statutory requirement of presenting to
ECOSOC the first report which FAO's Committee on World
Food Security has transmitted, through the FAO Council,
on progress in the implementation of the World Food
Summit Plan of Action.
Mr President,
In adopting unanimously the Rome Declaration on World
Food Security, Heads of State, Government or their
representatives pledged both their political will and
their common and national commitment to achieving food
security for all, in particular by reducing the number of
undernourished people to half their present level no
later than 2015.
The Summit recognized that reaching sustainable world
food security is part and parcel of achieving the social,
economic, environmental and human development objectives
agreed upon in the other major international conferences
of the Nineties.
These conferences have drawn up, by consensus, an
agenda for action in the Twenty-first Century, to which
the World Food Summit added the essential dimension of
food security.
Mr President,
As the Council prepares to review progress in
follow-up to conferences, allow me to share with you
FAO's major concerns with regard to the present world
food security situation, as well as to highlight the
links between the follow-up to the World Food Summit and
the implementation of other conference and summit
outcomes.
Perspective on world food security
First, you may recall that the World Food Summit's
goal of halving the number of hungry by 2015 was
considered by some to be too modest.
Yet it is already evident that reaching this goal will
require a significant acceleration of present rates of
progress in reducing undernourishment.
The latest information available does not reveal any
clear trend towards to the fast decline--of 20 to 30
million undernourished per year--which would be
required.
Indeed, the incidence of economic or political crises
in many developing countries, combined with mediocre
rates of both per caput food production and overall
economic growth, suggest that developments since the
Summit may have led to a further increase, rather than a
decline, in the numbers of undernourished.
In the countries where the problem is most severe, the
population is predominantly rural and agriculture
provides, directly or indirectly, most of the employment
and a high proportion of their economic output and export
earnings.
Increases in agricultural output and productivity,
especially by small farmers, are essential to ensure both
availability of and access to food. Overcoming hunger is
one of the keys to breaking out of the poverty trap. And
as concluded in a recent report sponsored by Future
Harvest, and generated by the International Peace
Research Institute, it is hunger which is causing so many
of the conflicts we see in the developing world
today.
That the first step toward peace is eradicating hunger
was forcefully reiterated recently by former US President
Jimmy Carter, who said (and I quote): "Raise the standard
of living of the millions of rural people who live in
poverty by increasing agricultural
productivity....Thriving agriculture is the engine that
fuels broader economic growth, thus paving the way for
prosperity and peace."
Mr President,
Investment in agriculture in the developing countries
is a pre-requisite for attaining these objectives. FAO
has estimated that to meet the World Food Summit target
an average annual gross investment of around US$ 180
billion is needed for agriculture and related
infrastructure and services in those countries.
Purely by way of contrast, let me recall that
according to OECD estimates, the total support to
agricultural producers (PSE) in OECD countries amounted
to some US$ 274 billion in 1998.
As in the past, the investment required in developing
countries will be generated mainiy from domestic sources,
private and public. Available data indicate that the
current actual level of investment is significantly below
the requirement.
External bilateral and multilateral support will
continue to be essential, and neither in this sector the
trends are encouraging.
During the period 1990-1997, official development
finance for all sectors stagnated at around US$ 80
billion. The net flow of private capital flows from
external sources increased strongly from around US$ 45
billion to US$ 250 billion, but the poorest developing
countries hardly benefited from this increase.
In 1997 private direct investment to the 48 Least
Developed Countries was just US$1.8 billion or 0.5
percent of total private capital flows. In the same year
14 donor countries decreased their ODA to the LDCs.
As regards agriculture, aggregate external official
assistance has declined some 32 percent in real terms
over the ten-year period 1985-1995. Furthermore, the
share of agriculture in ODA was halved, from 30 percent
to 15 percent, between the 80's and the first half of the
1990's.
These negative trends, especially in flows to the
Least Developed Countries where capital resources are a
severe constraint, must be reversed, not only to attain
the World Food Summit target, but also to achieve many of
the other goals which the international community has
set.
Assessing and reporting on progress in reducing
undernourishment
Mr President,
ECOSOC has undertaken to keep on its agenda the
question of coordinated implementation of conference
outcomes, drawing on the results of the review mechanisms
decided upon by the conferences.
In the case of the World Food Summit, the main
responsibility for assessing progress is assigned to
FAO's Committee on World Food Security (CFS), which is
open not only to members of FAO but also to all members
of the United Nations, and which acted as the preparatory
body for the Summit.
The Committee on World Food Security has made the
arrangements needed to effectively fulfill its monitoring
tasks, and as part of them, will provide a report to
ECOSOC through the FAO Council every four years. The
first report is now before you. The next report will be
provided in 2003.
System-wide partnerships
Mr President,
I would like to highlight some of the major ongoing
initiatives in which FAO is working in close
collaboration with its partners in the system.
In the area of human rights, and in accordance with
the outcome of the Vienna Conference in 1993, the World
Food Summit sought a more precise definition of the
concepts of the right to adequate food and of the
fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was invited
to consult and collaborate with relevant bodies and
organizations in order to better define the rights
related to food and to propose ways to implement and
realize these rights. Under the leadership of the High
Commissioner, considerable progress has already been
made. FAO will continue to provide its technical
contribution to this effort.
Work on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information
and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS), is directly relevant to the
Council's consideration of the question of developing
indicators in the context of conference follow-up.
As a matter of fact, addressing the hunger problem at
the national level requires accurate and timely
information to answer the three major questions
concerning the food insecure: Who, where and why?.The
World Food Summit identified a pressing need for more
reliable information on areas and populations affected by
or at-risk of hunger and malnutrition, and determined
that FAO should play a catalytic role in an international
effort to be based on national systems.
This work is being undertaken through a collaborative
effort which brings together concerned UN system
organizations, competent national and sub-regional
institutions and non-governmental organizations. Close
working relationships have been established with related
work programmes of the DAC/OECD, and the UN Resident
Coordinator system for monitoring basic indicators at
national and global levels.
Commitment Seven of the Plan of Action assigns
significant responsibilities to the Administrative
Committee on Coordination (ACC) for coordinated
inter-agency follow-up to the World Food Summit, and the
ACC is ensuring this through the Network on Rural
Development and Food Security, which has already proved
itself a cost-effective and practical mechanism.
This Network involves FAO, IFAD and WFP &endash; the
three Rome-based food organizations &endash; in
cooperation with the other concerned UN partners and with
strong links to other organizations, particularly NGOs,
working on rural development and food security.
The Network is global, and relies primarily on
electronic communication between members at the
international level. At the same time it is anchored by
its work in countries, where national thematic groups on
rural development and food security are established
within the UN Resident Coordinator System.
Major initiatives by FAO
Mr President,
As the Organization which convened and organized the
World Food Summit, FAO will not spare any effort to
ensure the follow-up and the implementation of the
Summit's decisions, which receive a high priority from
its Governing Bodies. A number of initiatives have been
launched in this context.
Commitment Four of the Plan of Action aims at ensuring
that food, agricultural trade and overall trade policies
are conducive to fostering food security for all through
a fair and market-oriented world trade system. Action is
under way assist developing countries to prepare for WTO
multilateral trade negotiations in agriculture, fisheries
and forestry.
To this end FAO has strengthened its office in Geneva,
has installed an information system on this subject on
the Internet, and has launched a training programme on
the Uruguay Round Agreements, aimed at enhancing the
capacity of developing countries, as well as countries
with economies in transition.
Commitment Seven of the Plan of Action calls on
countries to review and revise, as appropriate, their
plans, programmes and strategies, and to establish or
improve mechanisms for priority setting and action.
In this context, FAO has assisted 150 developing and
transition member countries to prepare national
strategies for agricultural development and food security
to the year 2010.
In consultation with the relevant institutions of the
main regional or sub-regional economic groupings of
developing countries and those with economies in
transition, FAO has now undertaken to elaborate regional
strategies for agricultural development and food
security, as well as regional food security
programmes.
FAO's field level action is spearheaded by the
Special Programme for
Food Security (SPFS), which is now operational in 42
low-income, food-deficit countries, and under formulation
in a further 31. Of the over 800 million people suffering
from chronic undernutrition, most live in these
countries.
The overall objective of the Special Programme is to
boost agricultural production, improve access to food and
increase rural incomes. It has adopted a
multidisciplinary and participatory approach, with
attention to the need to preserve the environment and
ensure social equity, in accordance with with Commitment
Three of the Plan of Action.
FAO is encouraging donors to give a high priority to
actions directed towards food security. It has entered
into partnership agreements with the World Bank, the
African Development Bank and the Islamic Development
Bank, under which significant funds may be made available
to the Special Programme upon government request. The
World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and a number of bilateral
donors are also participating.
FAO is also promoting South-South Cooperation, within
the framework of the Special Programme for Food Security.
This initiative allows more advanced developing countries
to provide technical assistance to other developing
countries by assigning experts and technicians within
rural communities, the costs being shared among the
cooperating country, the host country and FAO.
Mr President,
I said at the outset that development of agriculture
and the rural economy is essential to alleviate
poverty.
Investment in people needs to come in the form of
clean water and sanitation, health and social services,
education and training, and when needed, direct food and
nutrition support, particularly for mothers and children.
In all of these areas States have agreed goals, targets
and plans of action which must be implemented, and the UN
system is mobilizing its efforts, as today's debate will
certainly prove, to assist countries in doing so.
The message I bring is clear. Where there is poverty,
there is food insecurity, but food insecurity also
aggravates and perpetuates poverty. The more the hungry
can be helped to secure their own access to food, the
more they can help themselves to escape from poverty.
Meeting the target of the World Food Summit will help
to meet the broader goals of the international community,
and ensure a better, fairer and more human world for all
in the new Millennium.
Mr President,
I thank you and the Council for your kind attention
and wish you a most fruitful debate.
