Delegates from government, civil society and academia from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe gathered during FAO's Committee on World Food Security, to share national responses to the human Right to Food and the question of political commitment.

  Gert Lindemann, State Secretary in Germany's Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection; Victor Bernando, Mozambique's Vice-Minister for Planning and Development; Kaman Nainggolan, Head of the Agency for Food Security and Community Empowerment in Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture; Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Walter Fust, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation were presenters during the panel.

  Mr. Lindemann expressed the German government's support for fighting hunger and implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food adopted by the FAO Council in November 2004. He said the Guidelines call for states to "rethink their approach and to bring about a change in paradigms".

  Mr. Bernardo said the Mozambican government is drafting a National Strategy on Food Security and Nutrition which states that every human "being has the right to the quality of life that assures him or her good health and well-being. Access to food on a regular basis is a fundamental right of everyone and a basic need for well-being".

  Mr. Nainggolan stressed the importance of world reducing hunger before any of the other Millennium Development Goals could be achieved. He said, "The first goal - eradication of poverty and hunger is the foremost, because eradication of poverty and hunger is itself an invaluable objective of development".

  Referring to the contrast between the rich and poor, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino urged the solution to the problem of hunger. "We must work together as a human family, and as a family of nations so that the starving and those who want for nothing no longer live such different lives side by side," he said.

  Mr. Fust encouraged states to integrate the Right to Food into the national poverty reduction strategies and laws. He said, "Until we do that, we do not give adequate ground to civil society to do adequate lobbying and launch awareness-raising campaigns.