"A Millennium Free from
Hunger"
Message on the occasion of World Food Day and
TeleFood 2000
Rome, Italy, 16 October 2000
By selecting the theme, "A Millennium
Free from Hunger" for World
Food Day and TeleFood
in the year 2000, FAO is inviting individuals together
with world leaders, civil society organizations, private
corporations, foundations, farmers and other grassroots
groups, to join the Organization in the fight against
hunger and malnutrition.
Just four years ago, in a landmark act
of political will, 186 governments gathered in Rome and
committed themselves not only to reducing malnutrition
but also to ending hunger and achieving the goal of "food
for all" early in this third millennium. That commitment,
the so called "promise" of the World Food Summit, must be
remembered as we work to achieve that goal.
It is appropriate to recall Commitment
One of the World Food Summit Plan of Action: "We will
ensure an enabling political, social and economic
environment designed to create the best conditions for
the eradication of poverty and for durable peace, based
on full and equal participation of women and men which is
most conducive to achieving sustainable food security for
all."
It is against this and the other
internationally-agreed commitments in the World Food
Summit Plan of Action that we should measure national and
international efforts to combat the multiple causes of
food insecurity and restore the basic human right to be
free from hunger. The scourges of hunger and poverty are
morally unacceptable and have to be defeated. Hunger and
chronic undernutrition diminish human life. The lack of
physical or economic access to safe, nutritious and
healthy food at all times leads to negative consequences
for peoples and nations.
I have a vision of a world where every
man, woman and child has enough nutritious and safe food,
every single day. In my vision, the shocking extremes of
wealth and poverty are reduced. I see tolerance and not
discrimination; peace and not civil strife; sustainable
habitats and not environmental degradation; general
prosperity and not debilitating hopelessness.
But making that vision a reality
requires action on many fronts. With FAO's latest data
indicating that as much as 13 percent of all people are
undernourished, we have a great deal of work ahead of us
although considerable progress has been made.
Over the past three decades, the
number of hungry people has diminished by some 14 percent
while the per capita availability of food has grown by
around 32 percent. However, at the present rate of
progress, we will not reach the World Food Summit target
within two decades. There is therefore no time to waste
in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and
poverty.
Commitments and promises are mere
starting points on the road to achieving a millennium
free from hunger. Policies, programmes, projects,
resources and activities to achieve food security should
be geared towards ensuring adequate availability and
stability of food supplies, economic affordability of
food, as well as food quality and safety.
It is important to increase local food
production. In low-income food deficit countries,
households and communities can immediately benefit from
improved access. At the national level, appropriate
resources are also needed to improve distribution, and
strategies have to be developed to ensure that people can
either produce enough food or earn enough to buy
it.
Rural incomes and access to food must
be improved. With accelerated transfer of adequate
technologies, the ability of people to participate in
increasing the productivity of their farms and fields
will grow. But to keep pace with expanding populations,
agricultural productivity has to be further expanded and
optimized. The rapid growth of information technology
could be helpful for a global outreach.
Improved access to land, water and
other productive resources, reduced production costs
through better management, conservation of natural
resources including fisheries and forests; integrated
pest management; and new technologies, other income or
employment-generating opportunities, and access to social
services and serviceable infrastructure are necessary to
help improve food security. But a continuing decline in
overall investment in agriculture due to urban bias,
protectionism in access of agricultural products to
markets, policies obstructing a level playing field in
international agricultural trade and civil strife have
contributed to food insecurity.
Civil society can be mobilized in
promotional and fundraising activities against hunger.
The most committed should also be involved in the
dialogue and advocacy role with their governments, as
part of a broad campaign to achieve food for
all.
World Food Day this year marks the
55th anniversary of the founding of FAO in Quebec, Canada
in 1945. Today's observances around the world provide an
opportunity to review the progress made since the World
Food Summit. FAO's new annual publication, The State of
Food Insecurity in the World, provides that annual
benchmark to illustrate the dimensions of
hunger.
"TeleFood", a major awareness and
fund-raising campaign launched by FAO four years ago, has
helped to spread the word. TeleFood events and activities
now take place in more than 70 countries. Since its
inception in 1997, TeleFood concerts, events and
broadcast programmes on radio and television have been
enjoyed by more than 500 million people globally.
Those people have responded with individual donations
totaling more than US$ 6 million, donations that go
directly into setting up small-scale projects to help
groups of rural poor to produce more and better food,
improve family nutrition and generate extra income for
food.
This World Food Day and TeleFood
theme, "A Millennium Free from Hunger", is therefore a
clarion call for collective action by governments, civil
society organizations, the private sector and committed
individuals willing to work towards a more just and more
humane world.
It is my hope that World Food Day 2000
will serve as a catalyst for all of us so that the vision
and challenge of a millennium free from hunger can become
a reality within our lifetime.
