ECONOMIC AND FOOD CRISES THREATEN RECENT DEVELOPMENT GAINS – UN REPORT

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on rich and poor nations to boost efforts to fight poverty and hunger after a new United Nations report shows that recent advances are being threatened by the global economic and food crises.

The report, launched today in Geneva by Mr. Ban, warns that, despite many successes, overall progress has been too slow for most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the globally agreed targets to halve poverty, hunger and a host of other social and economic ills – to be achieved by the target date of 2015.

"This year's Millennium Development Goals Report delivers a message that should not surprise us but which we must take to heart: the current economic environment makes achieving the goals even more difficult," Mr. Ban told the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The Secretary-General noted that higher food prices in 2008 have reversed the nearly two-decade trend in reducing hunger. In addition, momentum to reduce overall poverty in the developing world is slowing; tens of millions of people have been pushed into joblessness and greater vulnerability; and some countries stand to miss their poverty reduction goals.

Further, the target for eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 has already been missed, he noted. Meanwhile, 1.4 billion people must gain access to improved sanitation by 2015 in order to achieve the sanitation target.

"We have been moving too slowly to meet our goals," said Mr. Ban. "Yet the report also shows that when we have the right policies, backed by adequate funding and strong political commitment, actions can yield impressive results."

The new publication, based on data from over 20 organizations both within and outside the UN system, is considered the most comprehensive global MDG assessment to date. It finds, among other things, that the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day decreased from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion in the period from 1990 to 2005.

However, major gains in the fight against extreme poverty are likely to stall, indicators show, although data are not yet available to reveal the full impact of the recent economic downturn. In
2009, an estimated 55 million to 90 million more people will be living in extreme poverty than anticipated before the crisis.

At the same time, the Secretary-General noted that the report does show some progress. Fewer people today are dying of AIDS and many countries are implementing proven strategies to combat malaria and measles, two major killers of children.

"We are edging closer to universal primary education. We are well on our way to meeting the safe drinking water target," he said. "We can and must build on these foundations.

"In Africa and across the developing world, we have abundant evidence that aid can help transform lives. But delays in delivering aid, combined with the financial crisis and climate change, are slowing progress," he stated.

Mr. Ban recalled that the Group of Eight (G8) and Group of 20 (G20) nations have made specific commitments to increase financial and technical support to developing countries by 2010 to achieve the MDGs.

"Those commitments include raising annual aid flows to Africa, yet aid remains at least $20 billion below the Gleneagles targets," he noted. "I urge the G8 to set out, country by country, how donors will scale up aid to Africa over the next year."

The Secretary-General also urged donor countries to meet existing pledges on aid for trade, a crucial component in improving trade competitiveness of developing country producers and exporters.

Speaking at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Second Global Review on Aid for Trade, also in Geneva, he noted that the aid for trade initiative has made good progress in the three years since its launch. The April G20 Summit pledge of $250 billion for trade financing could lead to a significant increase in the $25 billion that aid for trade received in 2007.

However, the global financial and economic crisis has had a severe impact on demand, and it is now widely predicted that global trade will decline by 10 per cent this year, he added. "Unless the direction of the crisis is reversed soon, it will further unravel the progress that developing countries have made over the past two decades in reducing poverty."

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AFRICA’S FOOD CRISIS MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN AMID GLOBAL ECONOMIC WOES – UN TRADE BODY

The governing body of the United Nations trade and development agency has convened a meeting today in Geneva to highlight the need to keep the food crisis affecting Africa from being forgotten as governments focus on tackling the global economic downturn.

While the food crisis may not be making the headlines it did last year, food security is still a major concern in many African countries, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

The prices of staple foods remain above their long-term averages and over 300 million Africans – about a third of the continent's population – continue to face chronic hunger, the agency said in an information note. Ensuring food security in the region will require improving productivity and rural livelihoods, as well as addressing global market imbalances.

UNCTAD said that decades of neglect, both national and international, of the African agricultural sector has transformed many countries from net food exporters to net food importers, leaving them vulnerable to price swings and variations in global crop yields. African countries currently import about 25 per cent of their food.

"The vulnerability of the continent to serious food shortages and hunger remains, since the root causes have not been resolved, and a repeat of the 2008 food crisis can recur if prices for such staples as rice, wheat, corn, and cooking oil climb again on world markets," said the agency.

Among those addressing the meeting convened by the Trade and Development Board on the issue were UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, and David Nabarro, Coordinator for the Global Food Security Crisis and Avian and Pandemic Influenza, as well as several experts.
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More Than 3 Million People Suffer From Food Crisis In Nepal: Report.

"A crucial government report has reckoned that 40 percent of the population in the mountain and hill districts [of Nepal]... is suffering through a severe food crisis. The numbers affected, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC), stands at 3.35 million, out a total of 8.4 million people living in these areas. A report released by the MoAC on Wednesday has stated that Nepal is running short of 132,916 tons of food grains, and this despite the rise in rice and maize production, by 5.2 percent and 2.8 percent this year respectively, compared to last year...." [Xinhua/Factiva]

Voice of America adds that "...the ongoing political instability is hard felt in a food-deficit country that is already vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition....World Food Program (WFP) Country Director Richard Ragan says Nepal's recent political chaos has 'thrown fuel on the fire,' in a country already suffering from massive food shortages. Recent parliamentary disruption has the WFP working overtime to find non-governmental ways to continue to feed two million of Nepal's most needy citizens...." [Voice of America/Factiva]

In related news, Trend News Agency reports that "...UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged Member States to agree on a set of decisions that will revitalize agriculture, support small farmers and promote food security for all.... The international community, he said, must offer short-term emergency measures to meet critical needs. But it must also make longer-term investments to promote food production and agricultural development, enhance food security and maintain and accelerate momentum towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)...." [Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan)/Factiva]

UN-BACKED 2009 SUMMIT ON WORLD FOOD CRISIS GAINS SUPPORT

A proposed 2009 world summit on the food crisis, which continues in poor countries despite falling commodity prices, is rapidly gaining backing and growing in relevance, the United Nations agricultural agency said today.

"The world food insecurity situation is unbearable," the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) affirmed in a press statement released after the leaders of the countries of the Caribbean Economic Community (CARICOM), as well as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, announced their support for a November parlay.

According to a recent FAO report, the total number of undernourished people in the world reached 963 million in 2008, nearly 15 per cent of the world's population, prompting the agency's Director-General, Jacques Diouf, to call for the meeting.

The proposal, FAO said, had already received support from the heads of State and Government of the League of Arab States at the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Kuwait last January.

It was also backed by the African Union (AU) at its assembly in Addis Ababa in early February, as well as by the heads of state and governments of several other States.

The FAO Director-General stressed that the Summit, to be held in Rome at the 36th Session of the Conference of the Organization, would reach tangible results by securing broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger and setting a new world food order.

"The Summit should lead to greater coherence in the global governance of world food security. It will define how we can improve policies and the structural aspects of the international agricultural system by putting forward lasting political, financial and technical solutions to the problem of food insecurity in the world," Mr. Diouf said.
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FOOD CRISIS NOT YET OVER, WARNS TOP UN RIGHTS OFFICIAL

FOOD CRISIS NOT YET OVER, WARNS TOP UN RIGHTS OFFICIAL
New York, Mar 9 2009 5:00PM

Despite falling food prices worldwide, the global food crisis has not ended, the top United Nations human rights official cautioned today, emphasizing the need to view the issue through the very basic right to adequate food.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council that it must target its work towards helping the most marginalized segments of society.

Last year, the number of the world's hungry surged from 854 million to 967 million due to the steep climb in prices of staple foods. In spite of dropping prices, they remain higher than they were in 2002, leaving the poor still unable to purchase food, she noted.

Further, lower food costs are actually discouraging agricultural investment, Ms. Pillay said, impeding efforts to step up food production, especially the capacity of small-hold farmers to sustain their livelihoods.

The Commissioner told the 47-member Council that steps to alleviate hunger and promote the right to food have yet to be translated into concrete action to help those most impacted by the crisis.

She voiced particular concern for the situation of the rural and urban poor, landless or small-scale farmers and households headed by women.

Ms. Pillay maintained that any successful strategy to defeat hunger should involve stronger institutions with better accountability, sustainable investments in agricultural production and research, and targeted support to small-scale farmers and the poor.

Last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored the need to scale up efforts to combat hunger and realize the right to food, given that the number of hungry people around the world is surging amid the current global financial crisis and the effects of climate change.

"Food is not just a commodity, and agriculture is not just a business. Both are central to survival. Realizing every person's right to food is a moral and humanitarian imperative," Mr. Ban told students of the UN International School at a conference on the global food crisis.
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