Commonwealth Secretariat
  1. Home
  2. What's New
  3. Who We Are
  4. What We Do
    1. Democracy
    2. Economics
    3. Education
    4. Gender
    5. Governance
    6. Health
    7. Human Rights
    8. Law
    9. Small States
    10. Sport
    11. Sustainability
    12. Youth
    13. Millennium Development Goals
    14. Funding
  5. News
    1. Events
    2. News Archive Search
    3. Picture Stories
  6. Media Room
    1. Press Archive Search
    2. Media Contacts
    3. Video
    4. Events
    5. In the Media
    6. Updates
    7. Downloads
  7. Resources
    1. Documents
    2. Image Library
    3. Libary & Archives
    4. Publications
  8. Publications
  9. Employment
  10. FAQs
    1. Acronyms
  11. Contact Us
Commonwealth Secretariat press release

McKinnon: World Food Summit Must Deliver

12 June 2002

"There is a real danger that the World Food Summit: Five Years Later taking place in Rome will not deliver results," Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon warned today. "Instead of generating money to feed the poor, it could just feed more summits. That must not be allowed to happen.



"It is a scandal that while the world is growing more food than ever before, 800 million people live each day in hunger," said Mr McKinnon, stressing that the problem was access to food, not total world production. "Every day 24,000 people die from hunger, when we have the resources to prevent those deaths. It is the will to end this scandal that has often been lacking.


"If we want to feed all the hungry people of the world, policy makers at the World Food Summit: Five Years Later must tackle the following priorities:

· Agriculture and rural development must be reinstated on the priority list of international organisations: 75 per cent of the poor live in rural areas. Agriculture is a major source of employment and income in most developing countries. Technical assistance in these sectors is central to the international development goal of poverty reduction.

· Commodity issues must be addressed: The food security of many Least Developed Countries and single-commodity producers depends upon adequate income from trade. The capacity of these countries to import their food needs is being severely impaired by falling commodity prices and falling income.

· Uruguay Round promises must be kept: The continuation of export subsidies and domestic payments to farmers of the developed world, combined with high tariffs on primary products, constitute major barriers to developing world food producers.

· Land reform: Insecure land tenure seriously restricts investment, including in new technologies, while inequitable land distribution limits access to the means of producing food. This issue cannot be ignored in addressing hunger and poverty."
The Secretary-General added that the Commonwealth Secretariat stands ready to collaborate with other partners to act upon these priorities.

Note to Editors:

In the 1997-2001 period the Commonwealth Secretariat implemented 348 projects in the agricultural sector, with a total value of nearly £10.6 million. A number of these involved collaboration with other international organisations, for example with the Food and Agriculture Organisation in implementing the Special Programme for Food Security in parts of Africa.

For media enquiries contact Minelle Fernandez (tel: +44 (0) 20 7747 6383).



Share this page
About this

ISSUED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIVISION
Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HX United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 6385/6 Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 9081
Email: info@commonwealth.int