2009 World Food Summit on Food Security in Rome

Leaders Must Focus on Child Malnutrition, Sustainable Agriculture

Nov 15, 2009 Christine Welter

Never in the history of mankind have so many people been so hungry. Since 2007 rising food prices and economic crises have slowed progress towards alleviating hunger.

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates that 1.02 billion people are suffering from chronic hunger in the world, mostly in Africa and south Asia. This is the highest number since 1970, the earliest year for which comparable statistics are available. FAO Director Jacques Diouf started a 24-hour-fast on the eve of the World Food Summit to show solidarity with the world's poor. He was joined by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Pope Benedict XVI and representatives of 190 nations will attend the summit..

World Food Summit on Food Security in Rome, November 16-18

The FAO has called the November 16-18 meeting hoping to win a clear pledge from world leaders to spend $44 billion a year to help poor countries develop self-sufficiency in food production. The World Food Summit convened for the first time in 1996, when 180 nations met at FAO headquarters to discuss ways to end hunger. They pledged to eradicate hunger and committed to a basic target: cutting in half the number of undernourished people by 2015. While advances were made during the first 10 years, high food prices and the global recession have brought the fight against hunger to a halt or even reversed it.

Hunger Organizations Ask for Real Action at Food Summit

"Smallholder farmers, mostly women, are on the frontlines in the fight against world poverty, hunger and climate change and we must not continue to ignore them, " says Frederic Mousseau (spokesperson for Oxfam). Investment in agricultural development programs supporting small scale farmers seems the best way to increase food production locally. Funding for sustainable agriculture not only produces food but also generates income and strengthens rural communities. Relief organizations warn against promoting high-tech agricultural techniques, many of which are socially or environmentally unsustainable.

"Rome Food Summit Must Address Childhood Malnutrition"

Funding by rich countries to fight malnutrition has remained flat since 2000, according to a report released by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in advance of the 2009 World Food Summit. Between 3.5 and 5 million deaths of children are attributed to malnutrition every year. Of the $12.5 billion needed to combat malnutrition annually, rich countries only spend $350 million.

"At the World Food Summit it would be a colossal mistake not to finally commit to improve and scale up nutrition programs alongside efforts to boost local food production", said Stephane Doyon. According to MSF, much of the nutrition funding gap could be filled by re-allocating existing funds to children under five. International organizations have shown that severe malnutrition can be prevented and cured on a large scale.

Every Six Seconds a A Child Dies of Hunger

A Billion for A Billion Online Campaign Against Hunger

Malnutrition: How Much is Being Spent? (Doctors Without Borders)

World Food Summit on Food Security in Rome, November 16-18, 2009

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World Food Summit in Rome, November 2009