Diouf: Need for Total and Rapid Elimination of Hunger

The current economic crisis that has forced 105 million more people into hunger is historically unprecedented says Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf. Hence, he called for a "broad consensus on the total and rapid elimination of hunger" during the  World Summit on Food Security of Heads of State and Government on November 16-18, 2009.

World leaders have to agree to increase development assistance for agriculture, Diouf also said in his annual address to mark World Food Day. "That amount of $44 billion of official development assistance that we need to devote to agriculture development is very low compared with the $365 billion spent in 2007 to support agriculture in the rich countries, the $1,340 billion spent by the world each year on armaments and the trillions of dollars found in short order in 2008–2009 to prop up the financial sector," he explained.

In related matters, the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) have agreed on a reform to make CFS the "inclusive international and intergovernmental platform dealing with food security and nutrition and to be a central component in the evolving Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition."

See the FAO press releases at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/36350/icode/ and http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/36446/icode/