Opening address
by
R.B. Singh
Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional
Representative for Asia and the Pacific
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok,
Thailand
Madam Chairperson,
Honourable Guests,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am pleased to welcome you on behalf of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Jacques Diouf, and on my own behalf to this extremely important Regional Expert Consultation of the Asia Pacific Network for Food and Nutrition on “the Follow-up on Establishment of Food Insecurity and Vulnerability and Information Mapping Systems (FIVIMS).” I am delighted to welcome the representatives of other UN agencies, Harriet V. Kuhnlein from the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE), Canada, and my colleagues from Headquarters and also from the Regional Office.
This Consultation is being held in the context of the overall mandate of FAO to promote production, distribution and marketing of safe, wholesome and nutritious food in order to raise the levels of nutrition and standards of living for people.
The World Food Summit (WFS) held in 1996 attended by 186 governments had resolved to reduce the number of the undernourished people in the world by at least 50 percent by the year 2015 with the longer-term goal of eventually eradicating hunger and achieving food security for all.
It is estimated that about 826 million people are undernourished of which 792 million are in the developing world and remaining 34 million are in the developed world. Asia and the Pacific with 515 million undernourished people is home to 65 per cent of the world’s chronically hungry people.
The FAO report on the State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2000 (SOFI) also brings out that the daily diets of the 826 million chronically hungry people lack an average of 100 to 400 kilocalories. The greater the lack of energy, the greater is the susceptibility to nutrition related health risks and thereby limiting their ability to lead an active life. In this region, the depth of hunger is particularly serious in Bangladesh, DPR Korea and Mongolia. Moderately high hunger (the hungry falling short by 250 to 300 kcal/person/day) was prevalent in several Asian countries, namely, Cambodia, China. India, Lao PDR, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Among the sub-regions, the problem is most serious in South Asia, which houses one-third of the world’s undernourished and two-fifths of the world’s poor. South Asia is home to nearly half of the world’s malnourished children. With such a high concentration of hungry children the future of these nations is already dwarfed unless directed efforts are made to pull these pockets out of the state where hunger breeds hunger.
Are we faltering in our commitment and promise made at the World Food Summit. In the Asia-Pacific Region, it is not only that the number is high, but most disturbingly it remains stubbornly high and in fact has increased by a few millions in the recent years. To meet our pledge, the ranks of the region’s hungry must be reduced by at lest 14 million people per year instead of the 13 million set at the time of the Summit in 1996.
Agendas at national and international levels therefore must give the highest priority to ensuring food to the hungry and elimination of the fear of starvation. In this context, it is most imperative to identify the hungry and the vulnerable, and the underlying causes so as to develop focused and targeted programmes for effectively reaching the unreached. A well-designed food insecurity and vulnerability information and mapping system or FIVIMS is the logical instrument and step.
Mr Chairman:
Permit me to recall the main objectives of FIVIMS, namely, to: i) increase global attention to problems of food insecurity; ii) improve data quality and analysis through the development of new tools and capacity building in developing countries; iii) promote effective and better directed action aimed at reducing food insecurity and poverty; iv) promote donor collaboration on food security information systems at the global and country levels; and v) improve access to information through networking and sharing.
Thus, FIVIMS is a framework within which a wide range of activities may be carried out at both national and international levels in support of improved information to achieve national and household food security goals. Although many countries already have information systems that provide FIVIMS-related information at the national level, locally-collected information having a direct bearing on the situation of food insecure and vulnerable households and individuals is still lacking in many others.
At national level, FIVIMS is based on information systems already in existence, it responds to the information needs of the different user groups within the country itself, and is operated and controlled by the country involved. By supporting the development of national information system activities, and raising the awareness of policy-makers and other concerned members of civil society about the plight of the food insecure and the vulnerable, the FIVIMS initiative is expected to result in improved policy formulation; improved programme management; more effective design and targeting of interventions besides more co-ordinated inter-sectoral and inter-institutional dialogue.
As you might recall, at the last year’s consultation held in Sri Lanka we had identified some priority actions. I am pleased that FAO RAP in close collaboration with you has maintained sustained follow-up on these. RAP facilitated participation of some of the participants at the FIVIMS Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG)-4 meeting held in Bali, Indonesia in February this year.
RAP has sent FIVIMS newsletters and distributed software on Key Indicators Mapping Systems (KIMS). It participated in national meetings concerning FIVIMS establishment in Bangladesh and India. A consultant was fielded to formulate a TCP project proposal for FIVIMS establishment in India. A mission from Headquarters is expected to provide further input in order to assist the Government of India in finalizing the TCP proposal. In China the establishment of FIVIMS was discussed during a mission in July. In Thailand a number of meetings were held with the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives and the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University (INMU). The country is finalizing a TCP project proposal in collaboration with RAP and ESD. In Viet Nam FAO has assisted in the formulation of a project in which FIVIMS development is a priority.
Moreover, missions relating to FIVIMS were undertaken by RAP to Myanmar and Cambodia and one has been planned for Lao PDR later this year. RAP attaches great importance to exploring possibilities in these countries as well where the database systems are generally not very strong.
I note from the Agenda that you will review the status of FIVIMS implementation in countries of the Asia-Pacific region and chalk out future action. I further note that the Agenda includes “Activities Concerning Traditional Food Resources of Indigenous People in the Region, and their Role in Providing Food Security”, an interesting subject of profound bearing on comprehensive food and nutrition security as it will be dealing with variety of foods like legumes, dairy products, meat, fish, vegetables and fruits that add other essential nutrients in addition to energy to the diet.
Mr Chairman:
The hungry child can’t wait. It is today that his bones and sinews are being formed. You can’t tell him tomorrow. “His name is Today.” It is painful that often this stark reality and urgency is ignored by policy makers, executives and other concerned actors in national and international systems. I trust, this consultation will critically identify the constraints and intensify the opportunities toward project development on establishment of FIVIMS. I urge all concerned to commit themselves to the noblest cause of granting food to the hungry and hope to the hopeless.
I wish you a successful meeting and a pleasant stay in Bangkok.
Thank you.
*****
