NEW YORK, 15 December 2008: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Monday that he and the Prime Minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, have agreed to co-chair a high-level meeting next month aimed at tackling the urgent hunger crisis afflicting one billion people worldwide.
The Food Security for All meeting in Madrid, slated for 26-27 January 2009, aims to gather governments, private entities and civil society groups to examine progress in achieving food security, define a road map for the future and tackle hunger more effectively.
The Secretary-General made the announcement at the sixth meeting of the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis, which focused its discussion on reducing hunger, promoting food security, and intensifying small-scale agriculture in countries that need and request assistance.
Mr. Ban also welcomed a follow-up to the proposals made by several heads of government at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome last June to establish a global partnership for agriculture and food security, and acknowledged the Group of Eight (G-8) most industrialized countries for supporting the partnership.
As well as pledging an extra 6 billion US dollar in new funding, the summit adopted a declaration at its conclusion that called for increased assistance for developing countries, especially for those hardest hit by the rise in food prices.
Kilde: www.un.org
