World Food Summit in Rome

Welthungerhilfe sees last chance for an about-turn 

Children in Madagaskar. (13.11.2009). Welthungerhilfe views the World Food Summit which begins on Monday in Rome as the last chance for the United Nations and the international community of nations to reduce the number of people around the world suffering from hunger by 2015. From the 16th to the 18th of November, international government representatives are meeting in Rome at the invitation of the FAO in order to develop new tools in the fight against hunger.

"This is the last chance for us to keep our word. Over the last ten years, the international community of nations has unfortunately not succeeded in getting any closer to the agreed goal of halving the number of starving people by 2015. Instead, more than one billion people do not have enough to eat", says Dr. Wolfgang Jamann, Welthungerhilfe’s Secretary General.

Welthungerhilfe is therefore demanding that the reform of the Committee for Global Food Security, which has already been worked out, is finally put into practice. The goal of this committee should be coordinating the content of all international measures used in the fight against hunger, and the matching of funds to those measures. At the same time, it should support governments in the South in developing their own local strategies for combating hunger. The level of acceptance enjoyed by the committee and its political strength will be reinforced if all UN nations are represented in it on an equal footing, and if non-governmental organisations also have a voice in it.

"We hope that the German federal government will do all it can to see that this important reform is implemented immediately, and that the committee is equipped with wide-ranging powers and a clear mandate. Only then will it be able to have the political clout needed to fight hunger successfully" Jamann stresses.

Our food expert Dr. Rafael Schneider is in Rome as a member of the German delegation and is available to give interviews on request.