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UN officials call
for urgent action on food prices
United Nations—Warning that soaring food prices could lead to
increased poverty and unrest, several U.N. officials have called for
urgent measures to tackle the global crisis, which threatens to hit
the world’s poor the hardest.
The World Food Programme’s (WFP) Deputy Executive Director has
warned of the rise of a “new face of hunger” that will require the
combined efforts of governments, the private sector, and
humanitarian organizations to overcome.
“Food prices are now rising at rates that few of us can ever have
seen before in our lifetimes,” John Powell told the Dubai
International Humanitarian Aid and Development (DIHAD) Conference,
according to a transcript of his remarks issued at UN Headquarters
in New York.
He expressed particular concern about the fact that markets are full
of food, but large numbers of people simply cannot afford to buy.
On Wedneday, at the same conference, Under-Secretary- General for
Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes warned that rising food prices
could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability.
The past few weeks have witnessed violent protests over rising food
prices in a number of countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon,
Egypt, Senegal, Morocco and, most recently, in Haiti, where several
people have died in riots.
Holmes, who is also Emergency Relief Coordinator, discussed the
issue today in his meetings with officials in Kuwait, the latest
stop on his four-nation visit intended to encourage greater
partnership with Gulf States in international humanitarian efforts.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
called for urgent measures to reduce the impact of high food prices
on the poor, which he said was due to a combination of factors such
as reduced production due to climate change, increased demand for
biofuels production and the higher cost of energy and transport.
Director-General Jacques Diouf made the appeal at the first-ever
Global Agro-Industries Forum in New Delhi, which has been sponsored
by UN agencies to focus on how such industries can contribute to
poverty reduction.—APP
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