ROME, Italy – The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization pleaded with the countries of the world this week to put their money and political will where their rhetoric has been.
Director general Jacques Diouf reminded representatives from 183 FAO member countries of their 1996 commitment to cut the number of chronically hungry people in the world in half by 2015.
“At the present rate, it will take more than 60 years to reach this objective,” Diouf told FAO delegates.
The muted response to world hunger is the result of several factors. Developed countries have reduced aid commitments over the past five years and international support for the FAO has also been declining.
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The FAO is chronically under financed. Half of its members have delinquent membership dues.
Next June, the FAO will host a world leaders’ summit, seeking a renewed commitment to tackling world hunger. The summit was supposed to be held this week but was postponed because of fears of terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Diouf said the attacks have had the short-term effect of concentrating the world’s attention on terrorism, at the expense of issues like world hunger. But he expects the long-term effect to be positive.
“At the same time, there is now a greater recognition that there is one world, a planetary village and no one can solve things alone,” he said.
There was talk from some delegates, including American agriculture secretary Ann Veneman, of forming a “coalition against hunger.”
“Working together we can break the crushing cycle of poverty and win the war on hunger,” Veneman said Nov. 5.
“The United States is committed to the goal of ending world poverty and hunger and will walk along side any country prepared to walk the same path.”
The head of the Canadian delegation, Diane Vincent, added Canada’s support for a stronger effort to fight world hunger. However, like many other countries, Canada has sharply cut its hunger-fighting budget since 1996.
The conference, which continues through the week, heard some stark evidence of the backsliding on the 1996 commitment.
Hartwig de Haen, assistant director general of the FAO, said there are 815 million chronically under-nourished people in the world, including at least 180 million under the age of 10.
That is higher than the number used at the 1996 world food summit when delegates set the goal of reducing world hunger by 50 percent.
The FAO estimates the number of hungry people is falling by just six million annually. To meet the 1996 goal, that number would have to reach 22 million a year.
Diouf was handed an indirect rebuke when he complained that FAO funding is inadequate.
“The FAO needs to adopt a realistic budget and undertake further effective priorization of its tasks,” said Simon Hearn, executive manager of the Australian agriculture department.
