Italy To Back Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security Plan
28/01/2009
Convinced support for the plan for a global Partnership to coordinate organisations and bodies involved in the fight against hunger and poverty: that, in a nutshell, is the thrust of the message that Foreign Undersecretary Vincenzo Scotti delivered to the final plenary session of the High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All. The meeting was held in Madrid on 26 and 27 January in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf and Spanish Prime Minister Josè Luis Zapatero. Undersecretary Scotti represented Italy, which holds the G8 Presidency this year.
The proposal for a global food security Partnership was first mooted at the FAO summit in Rome in June. It went on to win support at last year's G8 in Japan, and it has now been given a fresh boost in Madrid. Undersecretary Scotti made it clear that it is not going to be a new entity but a solution designed to enhance and strengthen those that already exist. At the same time, it will promote more effective and consistent action both inside each country and at the global level. Undersecretary Scotti argued that, given the worldwide economic downturn, the time has come for countries, international institutions, NGO's and private-sector players to cooperate on "fostering a fresh boost to investment in the spheres of farming and food, and a search for innovative solutions to support small-scale producers and to set up social security networks". Italy is committed to backing the plan for a global Partnership at every occasion on the G8 agenda: first at the ministerial meetings, and then at the final summit on the island of La Maddalena in July.
Addressing the meeting in Madrid, Scotti outlined the goals set by Italy, whose task it will be to lead the debate in the various stages of the 2009 G8. The first occasion will be the agriculture ministers' meeting, which is due to be held at Cison di Valmarino, in the province of Treviso, from 18 to 20 April. That will be followed by a meeting of innovation and development ministers in Pescara. The final goal involves submitting a "strategic document with guidelines for global action on farming and food security" to the Summit on La Maddalena island.
Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia also addressed this issue recently when presenting the first G8 meeting devoted to farming, which is to be held in Veneto from 18 to 20 April. This meeting will be attended not only by the G8 member countries, but also by those in the G5 group (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) along with Egypt and with the main international institutions involved. Besides FAO, they include the World Bank, the World Food Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the UN's High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis. Extending an official invitation to FAO Secretary General Jacques Diouf to attend, Minister Zaia stressed that food security and sustainable development, a boost to agricultural output and the fight against speculation in the rural sphere are some of the main issues on which Italy is planning to focus attention. Thus, as Zaia explained, it is going to be necessary to "come up with concrete solutions to the problems which, albeit in differing degrees, have an impact on countries with medium-to-low revenues, on emerging economies and on the industrially advanced countries".
