UN News April 29
STARTING NEW LECTURE SERIES, SECRETARY-GENERAL ISSUES WARNING ON FOOD CRISIS
New York, Apr 29 2008 7:00PM
The current food crisis threatens to undo all the recent efforts to lift people out of poverty around the world and could spark related economic, social and political crises, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today at the inaugural event in the Geneva Lecture series.
“We are familiar with the causes: rising oil prices, growing global demand, bad trade policies, bad weather, panic buying and speculation, the new craze of biofuels derived from food products and so on and so on,” Mr. Ban said at the lecture, jointly organized by the UN Office at Geneva and the UN Institute for Training and Research .
He warned that the recent surge in prices of basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn, already having an enormous impact on poor people worldwide, could lead to further deleterious effects.
“If not managed properly, it [the food crisis] could touch off a cascade of related crises – affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world.”
But the Secretary-General also said he was confident that the world has both the resources and the knowledge to deal with the problems, and he called on leaders to see the crisis as not just a problem, but as an opportunity.
“It is a huge chance to address the root problems of many of the world’s poorest people, 70 per cent of whom live as small farmers. If we help them – if we offer aid and the right mix of sound local and international policies – the solution will come. And along the way we will have struck a mighty blow for social equity and development.”
He called for a mix of short-term and long-term measures, including steps to immediately feed the most hungry people and actions to help farmers bring in their next harvests.
Today’s lecture is the first of a series that aims to raise awareness to a wide audience in Geneva of the most pressing global challenges and focus on how individuals can contribute to resolving such problems.
2008-04-29 00:00:00.000
DONORS URGED TO FUND UN APPEAL AS FIRST STEP IN TACKLING GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS
New York, Apr 29 2008 11:00AM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on donors to urgently provide the $755 million in emergency funds needed for the United Nations to feed millions of hungry people worldwide, as the first of a series of measures to tackle the global food crisis.
The recent escalation of food prices around the world has become “an unprecedented challenge of global proportions that has become a crisis for the most vulnerable,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in the Swiss city of Bern, after chairing a two-day meeting of the Chief Executive Board http://unsystemceb.org/, which brings together 27 heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes.
“The CEB calls upon the international community and, in particular, developed countries to urgently and fully fund the emergency requirement of $755 million for the World Food Programme and honour outstanding pledges,” said Mr. Ban, standing alongside WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran and other leaders of UN bodies on the frontline in dealing with food security.
Last week http://www.wfp.org/english/ called for urgent action to tackle the “silent tsunami” of rising food prices which threatens to push more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger.
“We see mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition which has severely strained the capacities of humanitarian agencies to meet humanitarian needs, especially as promised funding has not yet materialized,” said Mr. Ban.
The Secretary-General warned that “without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.”
Protests and riots have broken out in some countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. Mr. Ban noted that the causes of the crisis were many and included escalating energy prices, lack of investment in agriculture over the past years, increasing demand, trade distortion subsidies and recurrent bad weather.
In addition to the immediate priority of feeding the hungry, the Secretary-General emphasized the need to “ensure food for tomorrow,” urging support for farmers in developing countries. “We must make every effort to support those farmers so that in the coming years we do not see even more severe food shortages.”
UN agencies are already taking concrete measures to address the crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization has proposed an emergency initiative to provide low-income countries with the seeds and inputs to boost production and is calling for $1.7 billion in funding.
In addition, the International Fund for Agricultural Development is making available an additional $200 million to poor farmers in the most affected countries to boost food production.
2008-04-29 00:00:00.000
New York, Apr 29 2008 7:00PM
The current food crisis threatens to undo all the recent efforts to lift people out of poverty around the world and could spark related economic, social and political crises, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today at the inaugural event in the Geneva Lecture series.
“We are familiar with the causes: rising oil prices, growing global demand, bad trade policies, bad weather, panic buying and speculation, the new craze of biofuels derived from food products and so on and so on,” Mr. Ban said at the lecture, jointly organized by the UN Office at Geneva and the UN Institute for Training and Research .
He warned that the recent surge in prices of basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn, already having an enormous impact on poor people worldwide, could lead to further deleterious effects.
“If not managed properly, it [the food crisis] could touch off a cascade of related crises – affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world.”
But the Secretary-General also said he was confident that the world has both the resources and the knowledge to deal with the problems, and he called on leaders to see the crisis as not just a problem, but as an opportunity.
“It is a huge chance to address the root problems of many of the world’s poorest people, 70 per cent of whom live as small farmers. If we help them – if we offer aid and the right mix of sound local and international policies – the solution will come. And along the way we will have struck a mighty blow for social equity and development.”
He called for a mix of short-term and long-term measures, including steps to immediately feed the most hungry people and actions to help farmers bring in their next harvests.
Today’s lecture is the first of a series that aims to raise awareness to a wide audience in Geneva of the most pressing global challenges and focus on how individuals can contribute to resolving such problems.
2008-04-29 00:00:00.000
DONORS URGED TO FUND UN APPEAL AS FIRST STEP IN TACKLING GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS
New York, Apr 29 2008 11:00AM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on donors to urgently provide the $755 million in emergency funds needed for the United Nations to feed millions of hungry people worldwide, as the first of a series of measures to tackle the global food crisis.
The recent escalation of food prices around the world has become “an unprecedented challenge of global proportions that has become a crisis for the most vulnerable,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in the Swiss city of Bern, after chairing a two-day meeting of the Chief Executive Board http://unsystemceb.org/, which brings together 27 heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes.
“The CEB calls upon the international community and, in particular, developed countries to urgently and fully fund the emergency requirement of $755 million for the World Food Programme and honour outstanding pledges,” said Mr. Ban, standing alongside WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran and other leaders of UN bodies on the frontline in dealing with food security.
Last week http://www.wfp.org/english/ called for urgent action to tackle the “silent tsunami” of rising food prices which threatens to push more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger.
“We see mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition which has severely strained the capacities of humanitarian agencies to meet humanitarian needs, especially as promised funding has not yet materialized,” said Mr. Ban.
The Secretary-General warned that “without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.”
Protests and riots have broken out in some countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. Mr. Ban noted that the causes of the crisis were many and included escalating energy prices, lack of investment in agriculture over the past years, increasing demand, trade distortion subsidies and recurrent bad weather.
In addition to the immediate priority of feeding the hungry, the Secretary-General emphasized the need to “ensure food for tomorrow,” urging support for farmers in developing countries. “We must make every effort to support those farmers so that in the coming years we do not see even more severe food shortages.”
UN agencies are already taking concrete measures to address the crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization has proposed an emergency initiative to provide low-income countries with the seeds and inputs to boost production and is calling for $1.7 billion in funding.
In addition, the International Fund for Agricultural Development is making available an additional $200 million to poor farmers in the most affected countries to boost food production.
2008-04-29 00:00:00.000
Labels: food crisis, United Nations
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