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UN hunger summit vows urgent action

ROME, ITALY Nov 16 2009 15:20

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A United Nations summit on food security vowed in a final declaration on Monday to take "urgent action" to eliminate hunger affecting more than one billion people around the world.

Hunger is "an unacceptable blight on the lives, livelihoods and dignity of one-sixth of the world's population", the declaration said, but failed to cost its proposals for beating it.

About 60 heads of state and government are attending the three-day World Summit on Food Security at the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), dubbed the "Hunger Summit."

Humanitarian groups have slammed the absence of leaders of the world's wealthiest countries, and criticised the final declaration for omitting mention of a UN 2025 deadline for the complete eradication of world hunger.

They noted that no new financial commitments are contained in the document, which calls on wealthy nations to honour the pledges of $20-billion in aid over the next three years they made at July's Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

"Rich countries are failing to show enough interest and urgency," said Oxfam spokesperson Frederic Mousseau.

The declaration is "just a rehash of old platitudes," said Francisco Sarmento, food rights coordinator of the anti-poverty group ActionAid.

The summit delegates said they "commit to substantially increase" the percentage of development aid spent on agriculture and food security.

At the summit, Libya's Moammar Gadaffi called for an end to the purchase of African farmland by food-importing nations, describing it as "new feudalism" that could spread to Latin America as well.

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"Rich countries are now buying the land in Africa. They are cheating African people out of their rights. This is also going to happen in Latin America ... ," he told the summit, which was mostly attended by African and Latin American leaders.

"Small farmers are being bereft of their own land thanks to new feudal powers coming from outside of Africa and buying up land very cheaply," Gadaffi told the meeting.

"We should fight against this new feudalism, we should put an end to this land grab in African countries," he said. -- AFP, Reuters

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What you neglected to report was that this idiotic. murderous clown, paid for 500 prostitutes to attend a party at the embassy!!!
Evidently doing his bit to eliminates his sexual hunger!!!

Dennis Hoines on November 16, 2009, 8:16 pm

Dennis Hoines, you obviously have never been hungry for anything else but the deformation of honorable men. So, if he did pay for the prostitutes does that mean he can't call out other evils that impact on africans massively? Get over your yourself man!

Daliwonga Pantshwa on November 17, 2009, 9:42 am

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UN hunger summit vows urgent action

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