High-Level Meeting on "Food Security for All"
Address by Jacques Diouf
Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Madrid, 26-27 January 2009
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I should like, first of all, to express my deep gratitude to His Excellency José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of the Spanish Government, who, well aware of the importance of food security, is kindly hosting this meeting in Madrid, as he had proposed last June at the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security. On behalf of the Organization and all of you, I should also like to thank the Government and the people of Spain for their warm welcome and their generous hospitality.
Much has changed since the High-Level Conference on World Food Security in June. The world is now in serious financial and economic crisis. This comes in addition to the food crisis that has shaken the international agricultural economy and has highlighted the fragility of world food security.
In 1996, the World Food Summit made a solemn commitment to halve hunger and undernutrition and adopted a programme to achieve sustainable food security. That commitment was reaffirmed at the Millennium Summit in 2000, at the 'World Food Summit: five years later' in 2002 and more recently at the High-Level Conference in June 2008.
These commitments manifest the deep conviction of world leaders and the international community that eliminating hunger is not only essential on the ethical and humanitarian level, but is also a prerequisite for economic and social development. The events of the last two years have shown us that food security is also a required condition for world peace and security.
Regrettably, despite all the international commitments, the latest figures on world hunger and malnutrition compiled by FAO reveal that the present situation is even more worrying than in 1996.
The causes of the food crisis have been sufficiently explained, so I shall not reiterate them. As for the consequences, they are dramatic. The FAO report on "The State of Food Insecurity in the World" (SOFI) of 2008, which I presented on the 9th of last October, shows that in 2007 - mainly because of soaring prices - the number of hungry people in the world increased by 75 million, instead of declining by 43 million to meet the commitment of the World Food Summit of 1996.
With a projected increase of 40 million in 2008, the world is now estimated to have 963 million malnourished people. That means that almost one billion of the world population of 6.5 billion people is suffering from hunger.
Almost all of the world's undernourished population lives in the developing countries, where the number of malnourished people represents 98 percent of the world total, mostly composed of vulnerable groups: children, women and indigenous populations. In Asia and the Pacific, the crisis of 2007 plunged an additional 41 million people into chronic hunger. In sub-Saharan Africa, 24 million people suffered the same fate.
FAO's latest figures indicate that global cereal production in 2008, estimated at 2 245 million tonnes, reached a new record, which should in theory be enough to cover the projected needs for 2008/09, estimated at 2 198 million tonnes, and to allow a modest replenishment of world stocks. But with only 431 million tonnes, the cereal stocks-to-utilization ratio, at 19.6 percent, is at its lowest level in 30 years.
The increase in cereal production in 2008 was accomplished by the developed countries. In response to more attractive prices, and because of a greater elasticity of their supply relative to demand, they increased their cereal output by 11 percent. The developing countries, by contrast, only recorded an increase of 1.1 percent. In fact, if we exclude China, India and Brazil from the group, production in the rest of the developing world actually fell by 0.8 percent. That is a compelling evidence of the degree of underinvestment in agriculture in these countries over the last 20 years.
Cereal imports by developing countries are estimated at 78 billion dollars in 2007/08 against 34 billion in 2005/06, that is an increase of 127 percent over a period of two years.
After remaining unchanged in 2008, global meat production could rise slightly (by 1%) in 2009 to 281 million tonnes, because of continuing strong demand in Asian developing countries and the expected fall in the cost of animal feed. Global trade in meat products should increase by about 2.5 percent in 2009 to 24.5 million tonnes.
World dairy production, estimated at 693 million tonnes in 2008, should increase by 2.5 percent in 2009, as a result of continued growth in Asia and also in South America. Growth in international trade of dairy products is expected to be modest this year (+1.6%) to 41 million tonnes.
This particularly serious international food insecurity situation is however the chronicle of a disaster foretold. Five years after the Summit of 1996, we already had to reconvene a summit in 2002 to draw the international community's attention to the fact that resources to finance agricultural programmes in the developing countries were falling, instead of rising, and that the target of halving world hunger by 2015 risked not to be reached. Indeed, under prevailing trends at that time, that target would only be met in 2150 instead of 2015.
Concerned by rising food prices and the emerging issues of climate change and bioenergy, we proposed in 2007 the convening of a High-Level Conference on World Food Security in June 2008. At this event, the delegates of 181 countries - including 43 Heads of State and Government and more than 100 ministers - reaffirmed the need to produce more, particularly in the low-income and food-deficit countries, and therefore to invest more in agriculture.
Although it was not a pledging conference, 11 billion US dollars were promised. If we add the other announcements made before and after the Conference, we have a total of 22 billion dollars. A figure that is certainly encouraging. Contacts at very high-levels were made to facilitate the mobilization of those resources which should be channelled through the usual channels of Official Development Assistance. And I venture to hope that our meeting, today and tomorrow, will serve to make significant progress in the mobilization of those additional resources, not only in favour of food aid as has been the overwhelming case in recent months, but also in favour of required short-, medium- and long-term investments.
Surely, the present international situation marked by a serious crisis of the financial system does not facilitate our task. Although there are encouraging signs, such as the European Union's approval of the "Food Facility for Developing Countries" with a budget of 1 billion euros, the replenishment of IFAD's resources and the increase in credit to the agricultural sector by the World Bank, the financial resources for intervention still fall far short of the level of needs.
FAO however has already carried out several actions under the "Initiative on Soaring Food Prices", which it launched on 17 December 2007, with a budget today of 131 million US dollars. At the formal request of the governments of 95 countries, seed and fertilizer distributions have begun since the summer of 2008.
In April 2008, the UN Secretary-General established the High-Level Task Force of the United Nations system, the Bretton Woods institutions and other international organizations, to provide a unified response to the food crisis. He graciously appointed me Vice-Chairman of this Task Force, and it is in that capacity that I am addressing the opening of this important conference of Madrid.
The Task Force prepared a "Comprehensive Framework for Action" which defines the common position of its members on actions to be implemented in the short, medium and long term to deal with the crisis and to improve food and nutritional security at national, regional and global levels, with a focus on the twin-track approach - resolve in the immediate term emergency food problems, and promote in the long term agricultural production and productivity. The Framework was presented by the Secretary-General to the G8 Summit in Japan and to the United Nations General Assembly last September.
Governments and donors are urged to support implementation of the Comprehensive Framework for Action in its various aspects - support WFP to maintain its food aid activities as well as FAO, IFAD, the World Bank and other partners to enable them to successfully implement their agricultural development plans and programmes aimed at increasing smallholder farmers' production and productivity, notably in low-income and food-deficit countries.
Although its mandate is time-bound, the High-Level Task Force has proved, without replacing existing organizations, to be an effective mechanism for coordination among the agencies, programmes and funds of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions and the OECD. We should all be proud of the work accomplished because not only we have worked together to harmonize our visions, plans and programmes, but also to determine the needs on the ground in close collaboration with the governments concerned.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The decline in food prices that we have observed since July should not be interpreted as the end of the food crisis. This crisis is not only still present with us, but it may aggravate further.
Plummeting prices and economic uncertainty could discourage farmers from investing in means of production. Plantings in the next season could decrease, leading to a significant fall in output in 2009/10 and a price surge that could be even steeper than that of 2007-08 if it is not tempered by the impact of the economic recession on incomes.
If we add the increasing demand for agricultural products from the bioenergy sector, it is very likely that the determining factors of supply and demand would aggravate the risks of food insecurity in developing countries, particularly in low-income and food-deficit countries. These are experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth, which should result in increased demand for food and changes in consumption habits.
The financial crisis could also have a profound impact on many developing countries. The tight credit situation will restrict their access to the finances they need to purchase on the market the necessary quantities to cover their food requirements.
But beyond the factors that currently exacerbate the world food situation, there is a whole series of fundamental problems that need to be resolved, including governance, assistance institutions, farmer support, official development assistance, national budgets, private sector investment, food quality and safety, etc.
It is for this very reason that in my message of congratulation to the new President of the United States, Barack Obama, I proposed the convening, at the level of Heads of State and Government, of a World Summit on Food Security in 2009 to forge a broad consensus on the final and rapid eradication of hunger in the world. This same proposal has been submitted for consideration to the Heads of State and Government of the Member Nations of FAO.
Given the current international context, this meeting in Madrid is very timely. We must encourage the mobilization of the resources that were pledged in Rome. Indeed, those commitments should quickly translate into new, important and readily available resources. This was the reason for the appeal made by the UN Secretary-General at the General Assembly held last September.
In addition, several appeals were recently made in different forums, including the FAO High-Level Conference in June 2008, the G8 Summit in July in Japan and the Special Session of the FAO Conference last November, calling for strengthening the governance of world food security. The proposals concern in particular the establishment of an international Group of High-Level Experts on food and agriculture, with the mandate to conduct scientific analyses, and a Global Partnership to enhance dialogue with all partners and thus facilitate coordination and implementation of action plans.
With regard to the Group of High-Level Experts, the Special Conference of FAO unanimously decided on 21 November last year to entrust FAO with the responsibility of establishing this High-Level Expert Group. In line with this, I have just written to all FAO member countries, sending them a preliminary document to discuss the terms of reference of this Group of Experts and to start identifying personalities who could be part of this network of several hundred members, including experts from research centres and civil society. The FAO Conference also requested that the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) - which is open to all Member States of FAO and the United Nations and to representatives of other international institutions, NGOs, the private sector and civil society, and mandated to monitor the world food security situation - be able to fully play its role in the new system of global governance.
The debate on the establishment of a global partnership must be open. The approach must be inclusive. All stakeholders - governments, regional and global institutions, economic and financial partners, agricultural professional organizations, the private sector, NGOs, foundations and civil society - must be closely involved in this process.
In building this global partnership, we must also ensure that the will and sensitivity of all countries, without exclusion, are respected and duly taken into consideration. This will mean working with all the member countries and their duly authorized representatives. This will in turn require working methodically, taking the time for information and explanation, and organizing intergovernmental debate and with different partners. It is this way that we will subscribe in the process of seeking a constructive consensus.
I am convinced, and this has often been said and repeated, that there is no need to create new bodies. The aim is rather to improve, reinforce, coordinate, in other words to reform what exists so as to render our action more effective.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my hope that this high-level meeting will constitute a further step in affirming the full political will needed to foster coherent, effective and lasting action for the food security of humanity and future generations. It is an excellent opportunity for an initial exchange of views on recent developments and the prospects for world food security. It is especially a very favourable opportunity for concrete announcements of contributions, in compliance with the 22 billion US dollars pledged by donors on the occasion of the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security last June in Rome.
The fight against food insecurity requires rural infrastructures and modern production inputs, especially in the developing countries.
Our challenge is not only to ensure adequate food for 963 million hungry people in the world, but also to feed 9 billion people in 2050. And for this, we will need to double world food production with the financial resources required for investment in agriculture, with a view to guaranteeing the most fundamental human right: the right to food.
Thank you for your kind attention.