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Rome, Italy
6 June 2008
Poor countries need special
assistance to weather food price shocks
The Summit on soaring food prices,
convened by the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), has concluded with the
adoption by acclamation of a declaration calling on the
international community to increase assistance for developing
countries, in particular the least developed countries and those
that are most negatively affected by high food prices.
“There is an urgent need to help developing countries and
countries in transition expand agriculture and food production,
and to increase investment in agriculture, agribusiness and
rural development, from both public and private sources,”
according to the declaration.
Donors and international financial institutions are urged to
provide “balance of payments support and/or budget support to
food-importing, low-income countries. Other measures should be
considered as necessary to improve the financial situation of
the countries in need, including reviewing debt servicing as
necessary,” it said.
More funding needed for UN agencies to expand assistance
The final declaration also called on governments to “assure”
United Nations agencies “the resources to expand and enhance
their food assistance and support safety net programmes to
address hunger and malnutrition, when appropriate, through the
use of local or regional purchases.”
Speaking about the growing social threat from rising food prices
at the opening of the Summit, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf
said: “What is important today is to realize that the time for
talking is long past. Now is the time for action.”
World takes action
FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Mueller said, “Clearly
this Summit has decided to act. It has called for both immediate
humanitarian assistance to those hardest hit by the current food
price crisis and it has taken actions that in the medium term
should go a long way in considering the driving forces of food
system fragility to shocks in order to reduce the number of
hungry people in the world, helping us to meet the World Food
Summit and Millennium Development Goals.”
The Declaration calls for “development partners” to participate
in and contribute “to international and regional initiatives on
soaring food prices” and “assist countries to put in place the
revised policies and measures to help farmers, particularly
small-scale producers, to increase production and integrate with
local, regional and international markets.”
Also recommended by the Declaration are initiatives that
“moderate unusual fluctuations” in food grain prices. “We call
on relevant institutions to assist countries in developing their
food stock capacities and consider other measures to strengthen
food security risk management for affected countries.”
Call for increasing the resilience of world’s food systems to
climate change
On climate change, the Declaration said: “It is essential to
address question of how to increase the resilience of present
food production systems to challenges posed by climate change...
We urge governments to assign appropriate priority to the
agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors, in order to create
opportunities to enable the world’s smallholder farmers and
fishers, including indigenous people, in particular vulnerable
areas, to participate in, and benefit from financial mechanisms
and investment flows to support climate change adaptation,
mitigation and technology development, transfer and
dissemination. We support the establishment of agricultural
systems and sustainable management practices that positively
contribute to the mitigation of climate change and ecological
balance.”
More dialogue on biofuels and their relation to food security
On the contentious issue of biofuels, the Declaration said: “It
is essential to address the challenges and opportunities posed
by biofuels, in view of the world’s food security, energy and
sustainable development needs. We are convinced that in-depth
studies are necessary to ensure that production and use of
biofuels is sustainable in accordance with the three pillars of
sustainable development and take into account the need to
achieve and maintain global food security…We call upon relevant
inter-governmental organizations, including FAO, within their
mandates and areas of expertise, with the involvement of
national governments, partnerships, the private sector, and
civil society, to foster a coherent, effective and
results-oriented international dialogue on biofuels in the
context of food security and sustainable development needs.”
Successful Doha development round and improved trade
opportunities
According to the Declaration, WTO members reaffirmed their
commitment to the rapid and successful conclusion of the Doha
development agenda and reiterated their willingness to reach a
comprehensive and ambitious result that would be condusive to
improving food security in developing countries.
“We encourage the international community to continue its
efforts in liberalizing international trade in agriculture by
reducing trade barriers and market distorting policies,” said
the Declaration, adding that addressing these measures “will
give farmers, particularly in developing countries, new
opportunities to sell their products on world markets and
support their efforts to increase productivity and production.”
One hundred eighty-one countries participated in the FAO Food
Summit – 43 were represented by their Head of State or
Government and 100 by high-level Ministers. Sixty
Non-governmental and Civil Society Organizations were present as
well. Overall, 5 159 people attended -- 1 298 of them were
journalists covering the event. |
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