PACIFIC COUNTRIES JOIN CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE AGAINST HUNGER ROME, Italy (June 13, 2002 - PINA Nius Online)---Pacific Island nations are among 183 countries that have renewed their commitment to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world no later than 2015. They called on governments, international organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector "to reinforce their efforts so as to act as an international alliance against hunger." Eleven Pacific Islands countries are represented at the "World Food Summit: Five Years Later" organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Leaders of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Samoan and Tongan leaders are in Rome for it. Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are represented at senior government levels. Heads of State and Government unanimously approved the declaration of the four-day Summit. They backed efforts aimed at ending the tragedy of more than 800 million
people going hungry around the world. The countries invited the Council of the FAO to "elaborate, in a period of two years, a set of voluntary guidelines to support efforts to achieve the progressive realization of the right to adequate food." The declaration said: "With a view to reversing the overall decline of agriculture and rural development in the national budgets of developing countries, in official development assistance (ODA) and in total lending in international financial institutions, we call for an adequate share for those sectors of bilateral and multilateral ODA, lending by International Financial Institutions and budgetary allocations of developing countries. "We urge developed countries that have not done so to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance to developing countries." The declaration stressed that a "speedy, effective and full implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which shoul
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resources, is critical." In addition, all countries are urged to implement the outcome of the Doha Conference regarding the reform of the international agricultural trading system. The President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, said in his address that "all issues blocking the access of developing countries into the markets of developed countries have to be addressed." Spain's Prime Minister José Aznar López said on behalf of the European Union that "the time has come for a new association between governments, civil society and the private sector aimed at the reduction of hunger in the world." European Commission President Romano Prodi said that the European Union is in favour of greater open markets for agricultural products. Measures that are distorting agricultural imports should be reduced, he said. He expressed his concern about the recently approved United States "Farm Bill." Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that industrialized countries have to open their markets for developing countries. Ug
andan President Yoweri Museveni said: "Unless significant and fundamental changes occur in our countries, disparities in income levels and economic growth rates are likely to continue and to lead to social unrest." Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) Website: <http://www.pinanius.org> CHILDREN NEED FOOD AND MORE, PACIFIC LEADERS HEAR IN ROME ROME, Italy (June 13, 2002 - PINA Nius Online)---Success in lowering child malnutrition can only be achieved through comprehensive action on numerous fronts, Pacific Islands leaders in Rome for a world summit have heard. Speaking at the "World Food Summit: Five Years Later," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kul C. Gautam said that child malnutrition must be fought through measures that include: - enhancing household food security, - improving basic health care, and - ensuring safe water and decent sanitation for hundreds of millions of people who are still without these basic services. Eleven Pacific Islands countries are among 183 represented at the summit, organize
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Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Leaders of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Samoan and Tongan leaders are participating in the summit while Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are represented at senior government levels. Gautam told the assembled leaders that UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) believes the world produces enough food to feed every man, woman and child. "Hunger and malnutrition are therefore not due to lack of food alone, but are also the consequences of poverty, inequality and misplaced priorities," he said. He said efforts to reduce global malnutrition must start with children, on whom poor nutrition has the most damaging and lasting effects. Gautam stressed that child malnutrition is best addressed by taking a holistic, life-cycle approach, ensuring that all children are born healthy and are properly cared for in their earliest years. Primary health care and basic education must be provided in all communities, he said. UN
ICEF believes that significant gains can be made in human potential by tapping the power of simple micronutrients such as iodine, vitamin A and iron. These key micronutrients are necessary for cognitive development, better school performance, and work productivity. The past decade has seen progress toward universal salt iodization to reduce iodine deficiency and the distribution of supplements to reduce vitamin A deficiency in young children. But reducing the dangerous effects of iron deficiency anemia in women and children has lagged far behind, the leaders heard. Iron deficiency anemia is the single most prevalent cause of micronutrient malnutrition in the world, affecting more than two billion people. UNICEF also promotes: - integrated support to breastfeeding, - investing in girls, women and young people to strengthen their roles as providers of nutrition security, and - stepping up efforts to address the critical nutritional needs of communities devastated by HIV/AIDS. Pacific Islands News Association (
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<http://www.pinanius.org> SOURCE: Pacific Islands Report
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