2010 Economic and Social Council Substantive Session

Panel Discussion I “Towards a United Nations comprehensive response to global health challenges”
Intervention by Mr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General, FAO (delivered by Lila Ratsifandrihamanana, Director of the FAO Liaison Office, on behalf of the FAO Director-General)
New York, 6 July 2010

Your Excellency Mr. Morten Wetland, Chairperson,
Excellencies,
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you in New York today for this Panel on global health challenges of the 2010 ECOSOC Coordination Segment. I wish to thank the organizers for inviting me to participate in this session and for the opportunity to contribute to the deliberations on such an important topic.

In my intervention I will focus on the inter-relations between agriculture, food and health, and highlight how health challenges can be addressed from a food and nutrition security angle.

Food, nutrition and health

Food security and health are closely related. Good nutrition is a pre-requisite for a healthy life. We cannot expect to win the war against diseases and other global health challenges without eliminating hunger from the surface of the Earth.

Hunger compromises the health and productivity of individuals and their efforts to escape poverty. It acts as a break on the potential economic and social development of whole societies. Hunger and malnutrition increase both the incidence and the fatality rate of the conditions that cause up to 80% of maternal deaths, and are the underlying cause of more than half of all child deaths (killing nearly 6 million children each year).

Food security and improved nutrition fuels better health, increases school attendance, improves child survival and maternal health, and lowers mortality rates from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (which are diseases of hunger and poverty).

Food insecurity in the world and the importance of agriculture

Today, the hunger situation is unbearable. One billion people in the world suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition on a daily basis – that is one in every group of six human beings. Every five seconds, a child dies of hunger and related diseases.

As a consequence of the recent global food crisis, one in every three children under the age of five in developing countries – a total of 178 million – suffers from stunting due to chronic under-nutrition. 80% of them live in 20 African and Asian countries.

In 2050, world population is expected to reach 9,1 billion, with most of the increase taking place in developing countries. Food production needs to increase by 70% in the world and to double in developing countries in order to adequately feed this population and allow people to lead a healthy life.

The agriculture sector is central to achieving the health-related MDGs. It supports health by providing food and nutrition and by generating jobs and income.

Agriculture is important because it constitutes the main livelihood for 70% of the world’s poor, and is effective in fighting poverty. Studies show that GDP growth originating in agriculture is at least twice more effective in reducing poverty than growth originating in other sectors of the economy.

Examples of FAO health-related actions

FAO undertakes many actions that contribute to achieving the health-related goals. I will use the opportunity to mention a few examples.

In the area of pests and diseases of plants and animals, FAO has developed many activities under its Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) which was established in 1994. The program has three components: Animal Health, Plant Protection and Food Safety. It focuses, in the short term, on early warning and early reaction and, in the long term, on cooperation and networking centres of excellence to develop efficient and sustainable methods of prevention and control.

A good example of success stories is the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme which was launched in 1994. By 2009, 170 countries and territories succeeded in eliminating the disease. We are now working with the OIE to declare the world free of rinderpest in 2010 or 2011. This will be the first animal disease to be eradicated in the world and the second in human history after smallpox.

Other successful interventions under the EMPRES program include African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease, avian flu, H1N1, desert locust, the Ug99 wheat disease.

Safe and nutritious food supply is addressed by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission and the FAO International Plant Protection Convention – two international standard setting bodies recognized by the WTO. Over 320 standards, guidelines and codes have been developed covering major food products. Over 3700 maximum residue limits for pesticides and veterinary drugs, some 2000 Codex food additive provisions and 150 Codex maximum levels of contaminants and natural toxins have been established.

What needs to be done?

• As part of the global public health agenda, there is an urgent need to adopt healthier and more sustainable practices along the whole food chain – production, harvest, handling, storage, transport, processing, distribution and consumption. Just to give an example, recent studies indicate that weak post-harvest handling of crops contributes to disease problems that can lead to long-term disability and death.
• Efforts need to be intensified at all levels to guarantee food quality and safety for the consumers, and also to protect against the increasing threats of plant and animal pests and diseases which often have direct impacts on human health.
• Assistance should be given to developing countries to build their capacity, to develop their infrastructure and to enhance their preparedness and control systems. This is crucial if we want to succeed and realize sustainable results.
• But to realize the set objectives, strategies and programs need to be supported by adequate investment and sufficient funding. It is a global challenge that requires a global response.

This ECOSOC Coordination Segment has come at an opportune time. With only five years away from the MDGs’ deadline, it is critical to speed up interventions, scale up success stories and disseminate lessons learned in this global exercise.

I thank you for your kind attention.