MaximsNewsNetwork: HILLARY CLINTON: WORLD FOOD SHORTAGE @ UN Video

MaximsNewsNetwork: 26 September 2009 - UNTV: United Nations: Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-host and event on the global food security crisis. Following last year's dramatic rise in food prices, the UN system is working together to mobilize billions of dollars to save millions of lives.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined key players from over one hundred countries today at the United Nations (UN), on the margins of the 64th plenary of the General Assembly, to discuss the urgent state of food insecurity at the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday.
Ban recalled that when the food crisis hit, the U.N. system responded with rapid and, robust support.
The World Food Program (WFP) at that time built up food and nutrition safety nets and raised record funding to reach the worlds most vulnerable people; at the same time the World Bank and the whole U.N. system had supplemented that effort in support of millions of men, women and children.
But, the Secretary-General said the food crisis was, far from over. He added that the challenges of food security demanded multilateral commitment, creativity and leadership.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled the food security initiative launched by the Obama administration to combat hunger worldwide.
She said the new initiative elevated development to a, "key element of our foreign policy," seeking to help farmers improve output and make technology and infrastructure investments to make agriculture more productive and profitable in developing countries.
Clinton said that because international support had declined while contributions to emergency aid had increased, the U.S. administration wanted to try and alleviate the crisis and the emergencies by enabling people to feed themselves, without leaving behind the aid to immediate crisis and emergencies.

Rwandas President, Paul Kagame said that the food security in his country was improving. Adding that with pledges by the U.S. administration, together with awareness a world free of hunger was achievable. On Friday, the UN System Coordinator for the Global Food Security Crisis David Nabarro told reporters that under the auspices of the UN, states were taking a revolutionary and aggressive approach to the global food crisis.
He said the new strategy had been developed at a critical time as hundreds of millions of people suffered from food and nutrition insecurity. The new approach had been developed after the July Group of Eight (G8) meeting in LAquila, Italy and involved $20 billion worth of pledges.
Nabarro outlined the deteriorating situation in several countries, saying the situation was extremely worrying.
In Somalia, there were now 3.5 million people supported by the World Food Program (WFP), aid is (USD) 200 million short in that country. In Ethiopia, WFP now aided (USD)11 million people, but had a shortfall of (USD) 434 million.
In Djibouti, WFP had a (USD) 2.7 million dollar deficit, and in Kenya it now supported (USD)4.5 million people and was short (USD) 280 million. In Uganda, there was a shortfall of (USD) 66 million dollars. All told, Nabarro said, WFP was short about one billion dollars.

MaximsNewsNetwork:
News Network for the United Nations and the International Community.
See: http://www.MaximsNews.com.
"GIVING POWER & RESONANCE TO THE VOICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY"

.