Closing statement by
Mr. Jacques Diouf,
Director-General of FAO - 17 November 1996

(to view the video click on the image)

My first words will be words of gratitude to all of you who have flown from the different parts of the world and very often from very far away. You have done it because you considered that you belonged to the same international community and the same family of nations and human beings.

Despite your very important responsibilities, in view of the high position you hold, you have determined that coming here, to try to get together with a view to helping 800 million people around the world, would hold some hope that their situation will improve. The fact that so many Heads of State and Government, so many Deputy Prime Ministers, so many Ministers, so many representatives of your people are here, in the true spirit of universality of the United Nations, to work together, is certainly, for us, the best reason to consider that our efforts of two and a half years to prepare for this Summit have not been in vain.

It is also the reason for us to be convinced that the dedication, the commitment and the ethical sense of the issues you have shown, will guarantee action, will guarantee follow-up, will guarantee that beyond international commitments and policies, we will go over to the national level where decisions are made; and that we will find the leaders at national level themselves in the forefront with their people, because they are the ones responsible for, and the only ones who can ensure, their economic and social development. That we also have by their side those who live in the developed world, the international community, FAO and sister institutions of the UN system, the Bretton Woods institutions and the regional financial organizations, assures us that we will all work together hand-in-hand to ensure that young children and babies will not cry of hunger and that mothers will not be looking at children who have no hope. We have the possibility to do it, we have the know-how, we have the resources, and with the Rome Declaration and the Plan of Action we have shown that we have the will.

Let us now run against time to go beyond the set goal of halving the number of hungry by the year 2015. This is not a maximum goal, it is a minimum goal and I am convinced that what you have shown here, during these days that are history, is certainly the greatest indication that together we will win against poverty, we will win against scepticism, we will win against cynicism, we will win against egoism, and that the best of human values will prevail in the relations among nations, among states, among countries and within communities.

Thank you for having given me your support, and may God bless you.