A month ago at the United, Nations, nearly 400 children-all delegates to the historic Special Session on Children-joined leaders of the world to proclaim their determination to help create a world fit for children.

Why? Because, they said, a world fit for children, is a world fit for all.

UNICEF counts on the outcome of the World Food Summit: five years later convened under the leadership and guidance of FAO to be a major contribution to reaching the Millennium Development Goals to help create such a world fit for children.

Children must be at the centre of the world's food and nutrition agenda. Their nutrition and well-being are at the heart of sustainable development and the foundation of a healthy, productive society.

Ensuring children's right to good nutrition requires multisectoral action and partnerships. UNICEF welcomes recognition of this in the Summit Declaration.

Conventional wisdom would have it that malnutrition comes from a lack of food or an unbalanced diet. Yet, there are at least four types of hunger:

• The first hunger is the most obvious, for food. When delegates at this Summit speak about 800 million people living in hunger, this is the kind of hunger they refer to.
• The second hunger, which has not been talked about much at this conference, is the "hidden hunger" for micronutrients. These are minerals and vitamins such as iodine, iron, and vitamin A, necessary for cognitive development, better school performance, and work productivity.
• The third type of hunger is the need of children and women for adequate care and nurturing without which food alone cannot provide good nutrition.
• The fourth hunger is for a safe and sanitary environment-including safe water, clean air and sanitation-so essential for promoting health, growth and nutrition.

We con overcome these hungers by taking a holistic, life-cycle approach, ensuring that all children get the best start in life, that there is primary health care and basic education provided in all communities-and by promoting a healthy lifestyle among adolescents and adults.

Just one month ago, leaders at the Special Session on Children made a solemn commitment to reduce child malnutrition, and we are glad to see this reaffirmed by this Summit.

We urge that this Summit also reaffirm the following key strategies:

Breastmilk is a human being's first food. We must support breastfeeding and maternal nutrition, the first action of family food security.

Good nutrition is not just about quantity of food, but also its quality. We must use the power and cost-effectiveness of micronutrients in enhancing the nutritional value of food.

Over the past decade, we have seen remarkable progress in the reduction of iodine and vitamin A deficiency. But progress in reducing the dangerous effects of iron deficiency anaemia in women and children has lagged behind. Yet this anaemia is the single most prevalent cause of micronutrient malnutrition in the world affecting more than two billion people. We must redouble our efforts to combine knowledge and resources from different partners to significantly reduce anaemia in the coming decade.

One initiative taken to tackle micronutrient deficiencies is the launch of a Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) last month at the Special Session on Children involving the partnership of UN agencies bilateral donors, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, private industry and scientific organizations.

Other priority strategies include helping prepare young people for their future roles as providers of nutrition security, by supporting their health, education, and skills development.

Women are the guardians of family food security. Strengthening the role of girls and women is crucial for securing the good health and development of future generations.

Moreover, we must find effective ways to address the food security requirements and nutritional needs of communities devastated by HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which faces the triple burden of chronic food insecurity, a weakened labour force, and the increased nutritional needs created by the pandemic.

As the Secretary-General of the United Nations said yesterday, the world produces enough food to feed every man, woman, and child on earth. Hunger and malnutrition are therefore not due to lack of food alone, but are mainly a consequence of poverty, inequality and misplaced priorities.

We welcome this Summit's call for an international alliance against hunger. Let us make combating child malnutrition major focus of this alliance. We at UNICEF have learned from over half a century of experience that the cause of children has great mobilizing power, and that results for children can be used as a springboard for other actions called for in the Summit Declaration.

While many of you are here as Ministers of Agriculture, we ask that you see yourselves as Ministers of nutrition outcomes for your children. UNICEF stands ready to work with you on the follow-up to this Summit as part of efforts towards achieving the goals of the Millennium Summit and the UN Special Session on Children. For it is your leadership, resolve and intersectoral action that will generate momentum and unlock the resources to build a world fit for children that is a world fit for us all.