Italy - hunger summit

UN food summit leaves many unsatisfied

Article published on the 2009-11-18 Latest update 2009-11-18 15:29 TU

UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Director General Jacques Diouf addresses the FAO food security summit in Rome, watched by Pope Benedict XVI.
Photo: Reuters/Ettore Ferrari

The United Nations food security summit closed on Wednesday, without bringing any firm pledges of funding to fight hunger. Critics say that the talks failed to produce any real policy changes.

The three-day summit was held at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome.

Jacques Diouf, FAO Director General, said in his closing speech that countries had taken "important steps" by pledging in the final summit declaration to increase aid to agriculture.

But "alas, I note that this declaration does not contain any quantified objectives, nor any precise deadline," Diouf said.

The United Nations had hoped the summit would commit to eradicating hunger by 2025.

Yet there was disappointment soon into the summit when delegates from 192 nations rejected appeals to commit themselves to $44 billion annually in agricultural development aid.

Part of the aim of the talks, however, was to shift the emphasis away from aid.

The final declaration endorsed a new strategy to focus on making developing countries self-sufficient in agriculture.

Activist Flavio Valente, General Secretary of advocacy group Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN), praised this development as "a very important step toward improving governance of the world's food system".

However, he told RFI, the summit "omitted a lot of discussions that were very relevant, that were not even touched upon": notably, the impact of global agricultural policies on small farmers.

FIAN participated in a five-day forum for civil society activists that was held alongside the UN summit.

People representing peasant farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and activist groups from 93 countries attended.

Valente says that these groups will continue to participate "on equal footing with the governments" in food security talks, where their role will be to "hold governments accountable".