ADDRESS O THE WORLD FOOD
SUMMIT
FAO, Rome, Italy, 13-17 November 1996
Honourable President of the Italian
Republic,
Distinguished Heads of State and Government,
Mr Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Honourable Heads of Delegation,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, as we gather here in the
Eternal City, the cradle of Latin culture at the
crossroads of the great flows of human civilization since
the time of the Caesars, it is not by chance that the
peoples of the world should assemble, as in the time of
Trajan's Forum, in their shared quest for solidarity in
front of the ruins of the Palatine, resplendent in their
imperial majesty.
Our meeting, then, takes place under
the humanistic auspices of History, Art, Philosophy and
Culture.
This is important, for the underlying
significance of this first World
Food Summit would be lost to
us, were we to view it solely through the distorting
prism of technology, economics and policy.
It is only appropriate that the
leaders of the international community should have
journeyed to Rome:
Firstly, because we all belong to one
human race, each of us with the same rights and
obligations, where each person is all persons, to cite
the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges;
Secondly, because the advance of
communications has turned today's world of 5.7 billion
men and women of all ages into a planetary village;
Thirdly, and especially, because the
platonic ideal of the just state is deeply ingrained in
the hearts of all human beings, for as Confucius taught
us, a person of virtue places justice above all else.
Thus, the Rome Declaration submitted
for your approval draws from universal principles that
are rooted in ethics.
It reaffirms "the right of everyone to
have access to safe and nutritious food".
It considers "intolerable that more
than 800 million people throughout the world, and
particularly in developing countries, do not have enough
food to meet their basic nutritional needs".
It pledges "our political will and our
common and national commitment to achieving food security
for all... with an immediate view to reducing the number
of undernourished people to half their present level no
later than 2015".
It also specifies that "food should
not be used as an instrument for political and economic
pressure".
But ethics without practical
application only lead to the sterile formalism and
abstractionism of scholastic thought.
So the moral principles had to be
given substance in the form of a plan of action.
Seven commitments were therefore
negotiated to ensure that "all people, at all times, have
physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and
nutritious food".
This will entail:
- ensuring an enabling social and
economic environment;
- implementing policies aimed at
eradicating poverty and inequality;
- pursuing participatory and
sustainable development practices;
- fostering a world trade system
that is both fair and market oriented;
- anticipating natural disasters and
crises;
- encouraging the optimal
application and use of public and private investments;
and finally
- implementing, monitoring and
following up the Plan of Action.
Yet these so commendable international
decisions risk turning sour if, when taking stock in a
few years' time, we see that hopes have been dashed,
unless measures are taken here and now to mould these
decisions into national projects and programmes.
National because operational decisions
have to be taken at the country level. It is only there
that changes can be made, in terms of quantity and
quality, that will move the indicators of food security
forward and open the way for development options that
will conserve the already overexploited natural resources
and guarantee social equity in the distribution of the
fruits of agricultural growth.
That is why the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations will be working with
its Member Nations in building an appropriate framework
for concrete action. It has in fact started to prepare
the ground for this colossal undertaking with its
partners in the United Nations system, the international
financial institutions, the bilateral and multilateral
agencies and the non-governmental organizations.
The Special Programme for Food
Security which was adopted by the Member Nations to
spearhead the fight against rural poverty in the 82
low-income food-deficit countries, is already underway in
15 countries, and will soon be extended to others. It
should help raise productivity through the transfer of
appropriate technology and safeguard production thanks to
the harnessing of water and the construction of small
irrigation schemes with the involvement of rural
communities.
The programme will thus serve as a
central thrust in the implementation of policies to
increase food supplies in countries that lack the means
to purchase their food shortfalls on the international
market.
This programme has already been given
new impetus and wider scope by the support of several
developed countries and the participation of advanced
developing countries under South-South cooperation. As
more funds become available, its activities will move
from the participatory aspects of production to the
technical and socio- economic issues of storage,
marketing, processing, land ownership, access to inputs
and products and, finally, employment.
The Emergency Prevention System for
Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases, which
presently focuses on rinderpest and the desert locust,
should help protect the rewards of farmers' labour. The
sustainable development programme of Agenda 21 of the
Earth Summit is the last component of the three-pronged
strategy to reverse the cruel fate ofthe victims of
hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
However, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations was required to
function better and to adjust to a new environment if it
was to deserve the trust that its Member Nations placed
in its ability to play a decisive role in the only battle
worth waging: the fight for life and for the
consolidation of peace. And that is what the Organization
has been doing for almost three years, with the help of
its governing bodies and by changing its priorities,
structures and policy.
In a few days, a first evaluation of
this effort will be submitted to distinguished
personalities from different parts of the world and
cultures, with a view to submitting it later to Member
Nations. It will therefore be a revived and revamped
Organization that, with your help, will take up the
challenge of world food security as we enter a third
millennium, which could be a time of conflict over water
and food unless we take the necessary care.
We could, of course, question the
chances of success of such an initiative, when the
world's governments would appear to accept, without much
compunction, a reduction in the budget of the
Organization of the United Nations system that they have
entrusted to help over 800 million people suffering from
hunger and malnutrition; a budget that in fact amounts to
less than what nine developed countries spend on dog and
cat food in six days and less than 5 percent of what the
inhabitants of one developed country spend each year on
slimming products to counter the effects of overeating.
There is also no denying that the
lights and shades of selfishness, scepticism and cynicism
sometimes cloud the bright paths of hope, but the
glimmerings of generosity, confidence and goodness always
shine through in the end in the radiant splendour of the
miracles of conscience which, to cite the French essayist
Alain, always distinguishes what "is" from what "should
be".
So it is with faith that, under the
celestial skies, we look to the future, sharing the
conviction of the German philosopher Kant who in the
Metaphysics of Morals wrote that all the praises of the
ideal of Humanity, viewed in its moral perfection, remain
untouched by the examples to the contrary, showing what
humans are, what they were and what they will probably
be.
We are convinced that the two and half
years spent preparing this Summit and drafting the
technical documents on the many aspects of food security
have given a more informative picture and raised
awareness among public opinion and policy makers.
Moreover, the participatory process
forged dialogue with our many partners:
- the governments, the technical
ministries in charge of agriculture, fisheries,
forests and water, but also the ministries for the
economy and finance, trade, transport, infrastructure
and industry which have drawn up national papers on
food policy and, in each part of the world, a regional
position for the global negotiation.
- the parliamentarians, "Vox populi,
vox dei" who, through the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
have played an invaluable role and will also be
meeting in two days' time to add to the debate and
search for solutions.
- the private sector, producers and
trade associations, consumers and intermediaries, the
key players in the agricultural commodity market, who
have been involved throughout the discussions and one
branch of which will be meeting at a round table
tomorrow.
- the non-governmental
organizations, who are in daily contact with reality
in the field and whose disinterested and
assortedcontributions have been crowned by a meeting
that began on Monday.
- the young, humanity's future, who
took part in an essay competition on food security and
who will attend a forum from Friday.
Finally, all these actions have been
extensively covered by the media who, with their arsenal
of resources, have brought the tragedy of hunger and
poverty into the homes of the world's wealthy.
It is on this raising of awareness and
awakening of conscience that we rest our belief that the
rich countries will eventually direct their assistance
towards prevention, so as to limit costly crises such as
those which, alas, are casting such terrible gloom over
the Great Lakes Region of Africa, crises that could have
been avoided with appropriate development programmes.
So much effort must surely have an
effect on attitudes and behaviour, on perception and
understanding of the scale of the tragedy of the hungry,
whose voices so often go unheard.
So much effort must surely give a
salutary, redeeming jolt that will drive forward a vast
worldwide campaign to ensure "food for all".
That is why I should like first of all
to pay tribute to you. By being here, you have shown that
the despair of the deprived and of the vulnerable,
particularly the women and children, is worth the expense
of your journey and a little of your precious time.
In doing so, you have shown that you
are not indifferent to the human condition and that the
issue of determining how to feed 3 billion additional
inhabitants in the year 2030 amply justified convening a
Summit of Heads of State and Government, for the first
time in the fifty years of existence of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
I should also like to thank His
Holiness Pope John Paul II for his message of faith which
is so important in a day and age when money and the
market seem to be the overriding values.
My gratitude also goes to the
Government of Italy for its unstinting political,
diplomatic and material contributions which have been so
decisive for the success of this Summit.
I am of course immensely grateful to
the Member Nations and our development partners for all
their help and for the strong support and encouragement
they have given us in often difficult times.
I should also like to express my pride
at being at the head of the FAO staff who have worked so
hard behind the scenes to make this event a success.
Without their skill, efficiency, dedication and self-
denial none of this would have been possible.
But, above all, I should like to say
how fortunate I am to have been surrounded by the warm
affection of my wife and children. Without their love and
patience, I would never have found the necessary energy
and composure to embark on organizing a world summit.
Finally, Honourable Heads of
Delegation, you will understand if I urge you to
envisage, as of now, the measures that will be needed to
give practical expression to the professions of faith and
commitments that are made at this Summit.
By approving the Declaration of Rome
and the Plan of Action two weeks before the Summit, the
Committee on World Food Security of FAO has given you,
for the first time in the history of United Nations
summits, the opportunity to focus not on reaching
consensus but on identifying the concrete actions that
each intends to conduct so that the commitments solemnly
made before the international community can be
maintained.
May this world summit, no doubt the
last of the century, indeed of the millennium, be an
occasion for you to reawaken a sense of reassurance and
strong hope in the hearts of those suffering.
May you, the leaders of this world,
refute the thoughts of the German philosopher Goethe when
he affirms that men of action are always without
conscience, and that there is only conscience in the
thoughtful.
By demonstrating your compassion so
powerfully, here in the birthplace of one of the most
outstanding of civilizations, you will be confirming the
relevance of the words of the Greek philosopher
Protagoras, "Man is the measure of all things", the
measure of the existence of things that are and the
measure of the nonexistence of things that are not.
Thank you for your kind attention.
