Spotlight: Food security needs to be global community's top priority to eradicate hunger: UN agencies

If the global community makes food security a top priority, hunger can be eradicated with joint efforts, authorities of three United Nations (UN) food agencies said against the backdrop of the ongoing Milan world exposition.

The number of hungry people in the world has dropped to 795 million, 216 million fewer than in the 1990-1992 period, according to the latest edition of the annual UN hunger report published Wednesday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program (WFP).

Josefina Stubbs, IFAD associate vice-president, said her organization believes ensuring food security is a global responsibility which requires joint efforts from all parties.

Such endeavors show the interdependence among all peoples and their joint striving for common prosperity, which is strikingly similar to China's vision of the common destiny for human beings, Stubbs said.

Chinese leaders have repeatedly conveyed the message that the world is actually developing into a "community of common destiny," reflecting China's wish to build a better world together with other countries.

As part of the greater picture, "it is the responsibility of the society to achieve food security," Stubbs said.

For instance, forming a global community engaged in ensuring food security is what is happening at the ongoing world exposition in Milan, dedicated to sustainable nutrition.

"Consuming food as much as producing food responsibly is the responsibility of world citizens for this planet," Stubbs said.

According to the UN report, 72 out of 129 countries monitored by FAO have achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the prevalence of undernourishment by 2015, with developing regions as a whole missing the target by a small margin.

"The near-achievement of the hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our lifetime...that goal should be mainstreamed into all policy interventions and at the heart of the new sustainable development agenda to be established this year," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said.

Italian Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies Maurizio Martina told Xinhua that as "an act of global citizenship," this year's world exposition has chosen to propose a Milan Charter.

The charter, unveiled last month shortly before the opening of the expo on May 1, is a commitment to pursue the universal right to food and will become a legacy of the expo.

The charter is aimed at every visitor of the expo. "We aim at making millions of visitors aware of the global challenges that the expo's theme 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life' poses," Martina said.

By signing the Milan Charter, citizens, enterprises, associations and institutions declare their responsibility to undertake measures to contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The Milan Charter will be delivered to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Oct. 16, when he will visit the Expo.

"In this way we want to contribute to raise the level of debate, awareness and exchange of views on the global food issues and urge all institutions at all levels, governments in particular, to start political actions," Martina said. Endi