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ECOSOC Meets on Ways of Battling World Hunger- Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum ECOSOC Meets on Ways of Battling World Hunger
UN News
October 30, 2000The Economic and Social Council today held its first-ever meeting devoted entirely to the subject of "eliminating hunger in the new millennium" in an effort that brought together the heads of three United Nations agencies dealing with the problem. The meeting was held in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Welcoming the convening of the meeting, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette noted that in today's world, more than 800 million people go hungry every day including one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa. She said the meeting should help to build a strong consensus on "how to wage an all-out war on hunger and malnutrition." Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO, stressed that resolute action would be needed to reach the goal of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015. He added that insufficient investment in agricultural development could hamper the ability of future generations to feed themselves.
The President of IFAD, Fawzi H. Al-Sultan, stressed that renewed resources to address hunger must be accompanied by projects to empower the rural poor. The Executive Director of the WFP, Catherine Bertini, emphasized the importance of women's involvement as beneficiaries, participants and decision-makers in the fight against hunger. She also noted that compared with its benefits, the cost of addressing the problem of hunger was minimal.
The President of the Economic and Social Council, Makarim Wibisono of Indonesia, said that in promoting food security, it was necessary to seriously address the underlying causes of hunger, which included the failure to achieve sustainable, people-centered development. He also stressed the need to focus on protecting the needy through better preparedness for emergencies.
The President of the General Assembly, Harri Holkeri of Finland, said that hunger was a consequence of a wider problem, namely that the rich, representing 5 per cent of the world's population, consumed some 45 per cent of all meat and fish. He also said that while women produced the bulk of the world's food, they consumed the smallest portion.
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