IRELAND - IRLANDE - IRLANDA

His Excellency John Bruton T. D., Prime Minister of Ireland

As the Irish Prime Minister, I am pleased and privileged to speak here today as President in Office of the Council of the European Union. This Summit will focus the world's attention on one of the greatest challenges which will face us in the twenty-first century, the issue of how to achieve food security for all our people.

Almost one person in seven faces hunger or severe malnutrition in the world today. In the developing world, it is estimated that one person in every five does not have access to enough food to meet their daily needs. In addition, a far greater number of people, estimated at 2 billion, live on diets which are chronically deficient in essential vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine and Vitamin A.

This is an intolerable and unacceptable situation and it is why we are here today. Through this Summit we wish to affirm our absolute resolve that this appalling situation cannot, and will not, be permitted to continue.

As the population of the world grows, the challenge of feeding all our people will become even greater. Despite a falling growth rate, world population is expected to nearly double, to almost ten billion people, by the year 2050. We must act now both to deal with this huge problem and to ensure that it will not grow further.

I therefore welcome, and wish to associate the European Union with, the key undertaking in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security in which we each pledge our political will to achieve food security for all and reaffirm our commitment to the on-going effort to eradicate hunger in all countries. These must not be empty promises. We have a solemn duty as national and international leaders to ensure that words are matched by actions on this critical issue. We owe that duty to the hundreds of millions of men, women and children who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition and to many more who will suffer a similar fate in the future if we do not act now.

Moving from words to actions requires that we have a clear understanding of the nature of the problem, and an agreement on what needs to be done and by whom.

Through hard experience and through trial and all too frequently through error, we have learned that food security is a complex and multi-faceted concept. We know that the prime source of food insecurity is poverty. In any food crisis, whether local or large scale, it is the poor who starve. Poverty is a major cause of food insecurity because it prevents people from producing food for themselves and from buying available supplies. Progress towards the eradication of poverty is essential if access to food is to be improved for all our people, especially for the poor and members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and minorities.

That is why we define food security as a situation where all people at all times have the physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritionally balanced food for an active and healthy life. The mere availability of food is not sufficient, although it is of course crucial, to the achievement of food security.

Addressing the problem of food security therefore requires that we address the fundamental causes of poverty in both rural and urban areas, in this regard the issues we address now are closely related to those addressed by the Conference on Social Development in Copenhagen. The commitments made there are important to the achievement of the objectives not only of that Summit but also of this one.

Effective and responsive governance is critical if the needs of the poor and the food insecure are to be clearly heard. The Rome Declaration correctly identifies a peaceful, stable and enabling political, social and economic environment as the essential foundation which enables States to give adequate priority to food security and to poverty eradication. The necessary conditions for achieving this policy are:

a) Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

b) A democratic political system;

c) A transparent and effective legal framework;

d) Transparent and accountable governance and administration; and

e) An effective and equal participation by all people in decisions affecting their food security.

Human rights and respect for democracy must not be seen as luxuries to be enjoyed only by those who can afford them, but as providing the foundation for legitimate government action. With regard to combating terrorism, whether nationally or internationally, the European Union recalls that this cannot call into question the universality, and the protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Human rights and democracy are essential elements in the creation of a genuinely enabling environment which provides the basis for development, the eradication of poverty and for food security.

Appropriate population policies, consistent with the conclusions of the International Conference on Population and Development, are also an important part of the equation, as are the provision of education, sanitation and primary health care and other necessary services.

Women play a crucial role both in food production and in household food management. The commitments entered into at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing are particularly relevant in this regard. Promoting the full and equal participation of women in society and in the economy, and appropriately focusing policies on their needs, will contribute significantly to food security objectives.

Sustainable and participatory food, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development policies are essential to adequate and reliable food supplies, as are trade policies which are fair and market-oriented.

Significant progress has been made in recent years in encouraging food production. As a result, world per capita dietary energy supply has increased over the past 20 years despite the very high population growth in that period. However, these benefits have not been equally spread and some regions, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, remain in the category of "low- income, food-deficit" areas.

As we look to the future, it is clear that further gains in yields and productive area will be more difficult to attain, while population will continue to grow. We must continue the search for appropriate technologies to assist farmers to produce in an efficient and sustainable manner. Such technologies must be economically viable, socially appropriate and environmentally friendly if they are to be truly sustainable in the long term. Particular attention must be paid to ensuring that land and water resources are not degraded or destroyed but are used to their maximum potential in a way that ensures that future generations can also enjoy access to these resources.

Local production is frequently important not only to food supply, but also to poverty eradication and rural development. Agriculture is in this sense multi-functional, taking in as it does all the aspects and also the questions of avoiding rural depopulation and protecting the environment. Local production cannot, however, be the complete answer to food security needs. Trade is also essential. If we are to feed all our people we must produce and distribute food efficiently, and trade is essential to this. Appropriate trade policies, in accordance with WTO rules, are therefore another important element in food security.

We have seen in recent years how man-made emergencies such as civil wars and ethnic violence have severely disrupted food production and distribution, leading to hunger and malnutrition even in previously food abundant areas. The tragic situation in the Great Lakes Region in Africa is an affront to the entire international community. The European Union will continue our intensive efforts to assist in averting further human tragedy in Eastern Zaire and in avoiding a potentially catastrophic humanitarian disaster developing in the region. The Union will also continue to urge in every way possible that the necessary conditions should exist for essential humanitarian tasks to be carried out as quickly as possible and for the process of dialogue and reconciliation to be advanced.

We must spare no effort in our attempts to prevent conflicts and to ensure the peaceful resolution of any difficulties that arise. Corruption, too, is another insidious source of food insecurity, through the disruption it causes to economic and social development and it must be combated relentlessly.

I am pleased that the Plan of Action acknowledged so clearly the multi-dimensional nature of the follow-up to this Summit. Actions at household, local and national level must form the basis of any effective follow-up to this Conference. In the Plan of Action, Governments have made many commitments on the wide range of issues that impact on food security. It is vitally important that these commitments are implemented, for without action at national level little can be achieved.

The international community, too, has its responsibility to support national efforts where appropriate and to ensure the necessary inter-governmental coordination and action. The follow-up to this Summit must be closely interlinked with that of previous international conferences in order to ensure that the objective of food security achieves its due recognition in the process.

It is, of course, important that there should be close coordination among various United Nations agencies and other relevant international organizations in the follow-up to this Summit so that each can contribute to the overall objective within the area of its mandate and duplication can be avoided. Clearly, FAO will have a major role in this process, and I am happy to see this reflected appropriately in the Plan of Action.

Development aid, including food aid, has a role in supporting national and local efforts to achieve food security. The European Union (EU) is the largest provider of development aid in the world. An EU Development Council Resolution in Food Security was adopted in November 1994, which later developed into the policy reform adopted in July 1996. It stresses the importance of long-term food security as one of the guiding principles of development programmes aimed at poverty eradication. The primary aim is that victims of food crises become active participants in their own development process.

Speaking as Prime Minister of Ireland, I would also like to refer briefly to Ireland's policies in relation to development. It is 150 years since Ireland suffered the effects of a great famine, in which over one million people died and a further million were forced to leave the country. Ireland's experience of famine in the nineteenth century sharpens our official and voluntary commitment to development and food security. I would like to pay special tribute to the role played by Irish non-governmental organizations in this effort in regard to food security.

I also wish to take this opportunity to restate the commitment of the Irish Government to achieve the United Nations target of 0.7 percent of GNP for development cooperation assistance. Irish aid has grown significantly since 1992 and is now at a record level. I am confident that this growth can continue. Specifically, the Government is committed to increasing Ireland's Official Development Assistance by 0.05 percent each year, so that we continue to progress towards the United Nations target.

Irish aid is committed to addressing basic needs, poverty reduction and capacity-building and this has clear implications for food security. Our efforts are largely concentrated in the poorer rural communities of our partner countries. Our objective is to increase the capacity of these communities to meet their own needs. This emphasis on capacity-building will continue so that Ireland's development cooperation programme continues to serve our partner countries in the most effective way possible.

In my opening remarks I stressed the importance of moving from words to actions. The countries of the European Union are convinced that the Plan of Action which we have adopted provides a sound basis for moving toward our objective of the eradication of hunger and the provision of adequate food for all. We stand ready to play a full and active part in this process in cooperation with other members of the international community. The task ahead is great, but the achievement of our objective would stand as one of the greatest accomplishments of mankind. We must now show the courage and determination needed to reach that objective.