Brussels, 06/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Speaking before a Conference on "Sustainable Food Security for all by 2020" organised in Brussels by the International Food Policy Research Institute, the European Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Poul Nielson, estimated that close to 800 million people still suffered from hunger and malnutrition, hence dealing with the issue was a "moral imperative", especially since the World Food Summit five years ago had set a target of reducing the total number of undernourished people by half no later than 2015. "We are not on a path to reach that target", commented the Commissioner, saying that urgent action was required. The Commissioner presented the Commission's action priorities and objectives as follows:
The European Commission's food security policy is designed as part of an overall strategy to cut poverty since the best way to guarantee food security for all (in terms of providing sufficient food, Ed) was to implement a large-scale policy combining growth and poverty reduction, since growth, according to Poul Nielson, was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for food security. To guarantee that the poor were included in growth, it was necessary to develop markets, institutions and infrastructure that the poor could access and provide sustainable services based on public goods; tackle inequality as a priority issue (since inequality lies at the root of poverty and hunger) by distributing land and health and making rural credit more accessible to people who do not have a family to support them; and encouraging the poor to get involved in politics.
The lack of significant progress to date demonstrated that it is not sufficient to focus on providing and producing food and relying on food aid, explained the Commissioner. What was required, was coherence between the food security policy and the trade policy, macroeconomic management, regional integration, key sectors of the economy and social affairs, environmental concerns and the OECD countries' own internal agricultural policies. Most of all, explained the Commissioner, we must tackle the political dimension of food insecurity by paying greater attention to the promotion of democracy and good management of public affairs, preventing conflicts and building peace.
The "Everything but Arms" initiative that has been running since March 2001 to strengthen the least developed countries' trading capacity, the Commission's support for numerous programmes to enhance developing countries' production and trading capacities, efforts to reduce EU subsidies for the export of agricultural produce in order to take greater account of the interests of development countries in the fisheries agreements signed by the European Union and also in the next round of trade negotiations at the WTO, were all quoted by the Commissioner as examples illustrating the EU's policy which he saw as key elements for improving food security in the poorest countries of the world.