FAO: $13 billion to fight world hunger
FAO’s Summit on soaring food prices in Rome, held June 5th ended with another $6 billion in new funding to tackle the global food crisis.
Holmes said the figure of $6 billion is in addition to existing pledges of up to
$7 billion that were also announced at the High-level Conference on World Food
Security.
Framework for action
The funding will be
going to smallholder farmers who need it most, said Holmes. At the meeting, the
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) adopted the “Comprehensive Framework
for Action.”
Increasing nutritional and other feeding programs, as well
as supplying fertilizers, seeds, animal feed and veterinary services to help
smallholder farmers in the current planting season, are among the immediate
measures proposed in the Framework for Action. The plan also calls for a
reduction in export bans on food commodities, and focuses on the need for much
greater investment in agricultural production in the longer term.
181 countries
The FAO Food Summit was attended by
181 countries. Forty-three of them were represented by their head of state or
government and 100 by high-level ministers. Sixty nongovernmental and civil
society organizations were present among the 5,159 people who attended.
