EU official concedes 'failure' over world hunger

The international community has "failed" in the fight against world hunger and malnutrition, according to a senior commission official.

Stefano Manservisi, director general for development, said food insecurity represents a "growing threat for humanity."

Writing in the latest issue of Parliament Magazine, Manservisi also revealed that the executive is undertaking a radical "rethink" of its development policy.

His comments come as new figures show that over one billion people, mostly in developing countries, do not have sufficient food to meet their daily basic needs.

He said, "The food crisis of 2008-09 made the world realise that we have collectively failed in the fight against world hunger.

"Global food insecurity has worsened and, combined with the effects of climate change, represents a growing threat for humanity.

"With food prices remaining persistently high in developing countries, the number of people suffering from hunger has been steadily growing."

He said the problem had been "compounded" by the increasing impact of climate change and changing weather patterns.

"Considering that most of the poor and hungry still live –paradoxically enough- in the rural areas of the developing world (and particularly Africa and South Asia), due attention will need to be given to rural income creation and hence to the foundations of the rural economy, which in most cases implies agricultural development," he said.

He added, "Key to this is the sharing of knowledge and technology from wealthy countries and regions of the world, including of course the EU but also building on local tradition and knowledge from within developing countries themselves."

He said the commission was "strongly committed" to improve food security via a number of "cooperation instruments", including the food security programme and the "food facility".

"The activities that are funded under these mechanisms are helping countries to improve food security (covering agriculture, as well as nutrition, safety nets and risk reduction mechanisms), while adapting to climate change," he said.

"At the same time, the commission is reflecting on the EU food security policy framework, re-thinking development cooperation principles, policies and approaches on food security.

"An 'issues paper' has been subject to public consultation (ending mid-January) as a first step in the policy process that will stretch throughout 2010. The rethinking is not only caused by the global developments of the past few years, but also by the mergence of new topics and themes around food security, for example, right to food and bio-energy, lessons learned in implementing programmes and the emergence of new actors and partners."

World hunger was the subject of the summit of the world's regions held in Dakar last week, focusing on the theme of food security and the role of regions.

Lessons from this conference could feed into the new EU policy approach on food security, said Manservisi.

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