Your Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to be back in Sweden, a country with such a deep and long-standing tradition of solidarity and support to the UN. I am particularly happy to have been able to respond positively to the kind invitation of former Minister of Agriculture Margareta Winberg now Deputy Prime Minister, and of DeLaval.
I hope that this international conference will kindle discussion and debate on the contribution of the private sector, the dairy industry in particular, not only to the fight against hunger but also to food safety, which are at the very heart of FAO’s mandate.
Your Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our planet produces enough food, and yet 840 million women, men and children go to bed hungry each night. Ninety-five percent of these people live in the developing world, mostly in rural areas, and are dependent upon agriculture for their survival.
For over half a century, FAO has been working to alleviate hunger and poverty by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and food security – to give all people access at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life.
At the World Food Summit in 1996, world leaders made a solemn commitment to reduce the number of hungry by half to 400 million, by 2015. At the present rate of unacceptable slow progress, this goal will be achieved only by 2150.
Heads of State and Government who met again in Rome last year at the World Food Summit: five years later have committed themselves to reversing the declining trend of resources to agriculture and pledged to forge an International Alliance against Hunger with a view to meeting the goal of eradicating hunger.
Your Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our planet has the potential to nourish all peoples. We know how to free people from want. We know how to fight hunger. It means helping small-scale farmers safeguard their crops against the uncertainties of the weather – giving them the means to control water, the source of life, through small-scale water harvesting, irrigation and drainage systems, mobilizing local labor. They need to learn simple, inexpensive and efficient ways of increasing crop productivity and diversifying in animal production, fisheries and aquaculture. They require transfer of relevant and adapted technology, often in the framework of south-south cooperative, access to modern inputs, tools and credit. They also have to be able to store and sell their products.
Dairy farming, which provides a source of nutrition, immediate income and employment for both men and women, can help achieve these goals and contribute to food security.
FAO is working towards harnessing the demand for milk and dairy products in developing countries which represents 40 percent of the world’s annual milk consumption. For small communities in the developing world, milk can improve the lives and livelihoods of rural people.
FAO is working in the field, across the world, with about 50 small-scale dairy projects that transfer this potential into the hands of the communities, the farmers and consumers themselves. Dairy herds and milk processing plants set up by FAO have transformed the lives of villagers from Bangladesh to Bolivia. They provide jobs, they empower women and allow rural people to take control of their own lives. And, of course, not least, they ensure a source of fresh, safe and nutritious food.
The increasing demand for dairy products in developing countries – set to rise by 25 percent by 2020 – represents a powerful opportunity. It will be local dairies that will mainly meet this desire for milk, but the thirst for dairy products will also create opportunities for regional and international trade.
Churning out a thousand litres of milk a day, a single small-scale dairy in a poor country can provide income for 400 families.
At the core of FAO’s mission is the right of every man, woman and child to have access to the food they need for good health.
Lord Boyd Orr, who later became the Organization’s first Director-General, researched malnutrition among Scottish schoolchildren in mining districts in the late 1920’s and 30’s. He came to realize that something as simple as a glass of milk could make a real difference to the quality of their lives.
Milk provides children with valuable calcium, protein, vitamins and minerals, helping them to grow into strong, healthy and productive adults, which is why FAO promotes school milk programmes and organizes international conferences on the subject including one in Stockholm last week. Today, school milk programmes operate in 65 countries and each day tens of millions of children drink a glass of milk during their mid-morning break. But for children in rich countries it is a valuable energy boost, helping to develop a life-long habit of drinking milk. However, for the thousands who arrive at their classrooms each day on an empty stomach, a glass of milk provides essential sustenance and valuable nutrients. However, these programmes, to be sustainable in poor countries, would require school children to be involved in the production of the milk they consume instead of depending on hand-outs.
Private sector partnerships are a means of bridging the gap, of spanning this divide between rich and poor. No single organization can meet the challenge of eradicating hunger in the world – national and international, public and private, civil society and voluntary organizations – we must all work together. We must be willing to share responsibilities, risks and resources to achieve shared objectives.
The private sector – and by this I mean everyone from small businesses to multinationals with a global reach – must develop a greater social conscience and a sense of corporate responsibility, and with them a structured means of channeling the power within its grasp to those who lack it.
This is where we can work together to build an effective International Alliance against Hunger: FAO offers the private sector extensive knowledge and access to a wide range of development expertise within the Organization itself and in the UN family as a whole. And the private sector brings with it a broad range of expertise – in management, policy, technology and marketing, as well as project funding and investment finance.
DeLaval has already taken the initiative, providing financial support to FAO’s school milk promotion programme and investing in simple, sustainable technologies for the developing world.
Now, more than ever, the role of the private sector in the fight against hunger is coming into focus. Official development assistance continues to fall: from 1990 to 2000 the proportion of support provided to agriculture and rural development has fallen by 50 percent.
The OECD countries transfer some 8 billion dollars in official development assistance to developing countries each year while providing support to their own farmers to the tune of one billion dollars a day. This means that each and every farmer in the OECD countries is given an average of 12,000 dollars a year in support whilst farmers in developing countries receive just 6 dollars per farmer per year. Support to protect the few prevents market access for the benefit of the majority. Allowing developing countries to get a hold in international markets, to compete on equal terms with their rich neighbors is essential, if we can comprehend that the source of global stability is grounded in greater equity.
Globalization has shrunk the distance between worlds that were once far apart. And yet there is still a cavernous gap between rich and poor. Why do we not feel moved to act? Why do we lack the political will to turn pledges and promises into priorities and programmes?
Reducing hunger is not merely a moral imperative but an economic obligation: if the 840 million hungry people were to become consumers with real buying power, what a market for industrial goods and services from developed countries!
The private sector must become a key player by providing simple, sustainable technologies that will enable rural communities to create jobs, raise incomes and reduce poverty; by seeking ways of working together with the UN – pooling our resources and channeling our energies to achieve shared objectives; by becoming actively involved in helping humanity progress towards eradicating hunger; and, finally, by arranging forums like this, where words will be followed by actions and debate will determine deeds.
The opportunities are immense; the potential is within our grasp: let us seize this chance to make the world better for everyone.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Related Links:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO - news article on 3D conference |