The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon said today that in spite of the "unprecedented" effort launched last year to respond to the food crisis, greater efforts are needed to feed the hungry as the world faces an economic slowdown.
Mr Ban said "Much good work" – including bolstered national food security programmes, increased donor assistance and international cooperation – was done in 2008, but said challenges still lay ahead.
Mr Ban was speaking at the Food Security for All meeting in Madrid, which he co-chaired with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero.
"As food prices rose and brought the number of hungry people close to one billion, we achieved the largest emergency scale-up against hunger and malnutrition in human history," he said at the closing of the two-day gathering, attended by participants from 126 nations, including 62 government ministers, as well as civil society groups, trade unions and others.
Although food prices have fallen for the short-term, the Secretary-General cautioned that the global recession could push more people into hunger.
"We must do better in 2009," he stressed, adding that "we must build on what was done last year, sustain our successes and scale up our responses, especially as the financial crisis compounds the impact of the food crisis."
In addition to the twin-track approach of providing food and nutrition aid along with boosting food production, Mr Ban called for a new element – the right to food – to be added to fighting food insecurity.
He and Mr Zapatero underscored the need for a "comprehensive approach that links nutrition, food security, agriculture and trade" to address the food crisis.
"It depends on inclusive, broad-based partnerships bringing together governments, civil society, farmers’ organisations, businesses and international organizations," they said in a joint statement issued at the end of the Madrid gathering.
Also at the conclusion of the meeting, participants called for social protection systems and the elimination of competition-distorting subsidies as a means to spur fair agricultural trade.
They also "supported the importance of including marginalised and excluded men, women and children and indigenous groups in this process, giving them voice so that their views are prioritized when analyzing the problems, searching for viable solutions and implementing them."
The event in Spain is a follow-up to last June’s High-level Conference on World Food Security in Rome which was hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Earlier during the meeting, representatives of key international agencies pledged to step up commitments against hunger and malnutrition. Amongst strategies listed were a need strategic investments in agriculture for increased food production.
The objectives of the meeting was to raise the political profile of hunger and food security, develop new partnerships and increase resources.