UN to establish task force to tackle food crisis

www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-29 17:57:59

GENEVA, April 29 (Xinhua) --

The United Nations (UN) will establish a task force to tackle the global food crisis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced in the Swiss capital Bern Tuesday.

Ban, who will head the task force himself, announced the decision after meeting with 27 key international agencies. The UN will take a series of emergent and long-term measures to deal with the crisis, he told reporters.

The UN chief said the first priority of the high-level task force would be to meet a shortfall of 755 million U.S. dollars in funding for the World Food Program.

"We anticipate that additional funding will be required." Ban said. He noted that more was needed to provide for future needs.

Ban said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had a plan with 1.7 billion dollars to provide seeds for farmers in the world's poorest countries.

Ban also called on world leaders to attend a June meeting in Rome to hammer out plans to solve the global food crisis. He said the international community had previously not listened to warnings from the FAO and agencies.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who also attended the meeting, urged the international community to focus on the long-term measures on the food crisis. "This crisis isn't over once the emergency needs are met," he said.

After the meeting, Pascal Lamy, director-general of World Trade Organization (WTO), said the crisis was another urgent reason to conclude the Doha round of trade talks.

The Doha round of trade talks aims at liberalizing food and other goods as well as services by cutting tariffs and subsidies.

"I believe that today's call for action under the auspices of the UN secretary-general can help WTO members gather the necessary political energy in order to help developing countries to increase their food production capacity," Lamy said.

UN food agency pushes for solutions to food crisis

www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-25 05:08:12

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Xinhua) --

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) is pushing for both urgent and long-term solutions to the food crisis that is facing the world, the head of the agency said Thursday.

In a video conference from Rome, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran told UN reporters that soaring food prices and tight supplies are endangering the efforts of the agency to feed millions of hungry people around the world.

"We can buy 40 percent less food than we could last June with the same contribution," Sheeran said.

She said WFP is working with its partners such as the UN Children's Fund, or UNICEF, for increased resources to meet the urgent needs of the most vulnerable.

The agency is also pushing for efforts, in cooperation with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and others, to deal with the shortage of fertilizers and seeds for the planting season.

Sheeran stressed that WFP is also seeking long-term solutions, such as increasing investment and improving infrastructure, so as to boost agricultural production in developing countries.

She described the current food crisis as "a silent tsunami."

"It knows no borders and it's affecting many and it's in a way has been moving quietly throughout the globe, but we are seeing the same kind of effects that we see in a storm where we see people left unable to meet their basic needs," she said.

Editor: Yan Liang

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