Intervention by the Hon. Vincenzo Scotti
Intervention by the Hon. Vincenzo Scotti, Under Secretary of State,
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the High Level Meeting on Food Security for All
Madrid, 27 January 2009
Excellencies, Ministers, Distinguished Representatives of the Governments and Participants, I would like to thank Prime Minister Zapatero and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for their invitation to this High Level Meeting on Food Security for All. At the FAO High level Conference on World Food Security last year, in Rome, the international community committed to establish short, medium and long term measures to eliminate hunger and to secure food for all today and tomorrow. Italy has actively participated in the global efforts, through bilateral and multilateral interventions, through the support to the FAO reform, the replenishment of IFAD and the approval of the EU Food Facility. This event represents an excellent opportunity offered by the Spanish Government to take stock of where the international community stands in addressing the challenge of ensuring food security and assessing what progress has been achieved on new approaches. The establishment of a Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security is one of the possible new approaches to which Italy is willing to offer all its support also from the perspective of the Presidency of the G8.
The idea of a Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security was formally presented at the FAO High Level Conference last June. Support to its establishment was one of the key commitments of the G8 Toyako Summit. Since then, the Global Partnership has been recalled in several events, such as the High Level Event on the MDGs in New York , the FAO Committee on Food Security, and the FAO Extraordinary Conference. This High Level Meeting is a further important step in shaping the Partnership.
The global economic scenario has dramatically changed since we last convened in Rome only seven months ago. Global food prices have significantly decreased, but this has by no means brought us closer to defeating hunger and to achieving the first of the Millennium Development Goals: the last FAO report shows that, far from decreasing, the number of people suffering from hunger has even increased up to almost 1 billion.
This proves that defeating hunger and ensuring food security is a complex endeavour, which requires an integrated approach bringing together consistently all relevant actors and instruments.
We need to bring agriculture, food security and nutrition back at the forefront of the political and development agenda. We need Official Development Assistance but also stable private investments flows, we need to enhance trade and work on possible innovative financial mechanisms. This must be a collective effort, mobilising all resources and actors, in line with the conclusions of the Accra and Doha Conferences.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has opened the way to this innovative, holistic, approach with the farsighted decision to establish a High Level Task Force on Global Food Security Crisis. We strongly support the efforts of the Task Force and of its Coordinator, David Nabarro, that are bringing forward the Comprehensive Framework for Action with much enthusiasm and effectiveness from the Task Force Secretariat in Rome.
Against this background, and building on the Toyako commitments, G8 Countries have agreed on some guiding principles that their Governments will adopt in joining the Partnership.
It is now time for us all to make a step forward. We must advance and launch a broad and inclusive consultation process aimed at setting up the Global Partnership. The High Level Task Force was established to facilitate a common approach of the UN agencies and the International Financial Institutions. The Global Partnership will rely on the Task Force in order to bring together, besides UN agencies and International Financial Institutions, all other relevant actors: civil society and private sector, consumers and producers, academia, central and local Governments.
Madam Chair,
The Global Partnership is by definition an inclusive endeavour: it will be inclusive or, simply, will not be. We must ensure that the voice of those most affected by the food crisis can be heard and their efforts to defeat hunger adequately supported.
It is essential to support strategies of integrated development, to promote agricultural research, to sustain smallholders and women farmers, to create social safety nets.
We believe that the Secretariat of the High Level Task Force is best placed to lead the consultation process towards the first Assembly . Let me stress that – in our view – the Partnership should not become a new organization, but rather build on and strengthen the existing ones and promote more effective and coherent actions at both the global and country level. Inclusiveness is imperative, but we also share a common sense of urgency. We believe the Global Partnership should see the light within 2009, with the formal endorsement of a Charter by all potential stakeholders. Participants to the Partnership could convene in its first Assembly next autumn.
We all know how complex and challenging building such a Partnership can be. For this reason I have come here today as G8 Chair to offer you all G8-related events that we will host in 2009 as a platform to contribute to the launching of the Partnership. All these events will be characterized by inclusiveness and by the will to genuinely share leadership and responsibility in the pursuit of common goals. I therefore invite the High Level Task Force to work together with us and use the Agriculture Ministers meeting in April, the Development Ministers meeting in May and the G8 Summit itself in July to advance in the establishment of the Partnership. I wish to emphasize that it should be our common ambition to gather a critical mass of relevant stakeholders around a draft Charter for the Partnership in the coming months.
I am hopeful that this goal can be shared by all participants that convened today here in Madrid. The Government of Italy is certainly willing to back this common ambition.
Thank you.
