Statement by Shelia Sisulu, Deputy Executive Director, WFP

Ladies, gentleman, distinguished representatives of the Italian Government, media, and the diplomatic corps, I am pleased to be here today to join with my colleagues in the other Rome-based agencies in launching the Millennium Project Report. The Millennium Declaration endorsed by heads of state at the 2000 Millennium Summit represents one of the most important commitments ever made by world leaders to the people they represent. That is why the result of the Millennium Project we are presenting here today is so important. This report provides clear and compelling recommendations for concrete action. Implementing these recommendations will help get the world on track to meet by 2015 the commitments made in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The eight MDGs are an interlinking set of commitments, all of which contribute to the success of the whole. Nonetheless, we have a particular responsibility as leaders in Rome , the home of the UN agencies involved in food, agriculture, and alleviation of rural poverty to highlight the importance of fighting hunger in meeting the MDGs.

It is obvious that food and agriculture have a key role in meeting the first MDG, which sets a specific target for halving hunger by 2015. But the contribution food assistance can make to achieving the MDGs does not stop there. Foods for education programs directly support the second goal of achieving universal primary education. Food controlled by women promotes gender equality and women's empowerment, the third MDG. More than five million children die of causes directly related to malnutrition every year so efforts to end child hunger are central to the fourth goal of reducing child mortality. The role of good nutrition in contributing to improving maternal health (MDG 5) has been well-documented. The contribution of food and nutrition interventions to improving the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS (MDG 6) is becoming increasingly clear each day.

In a world that has abundant resources and can produce sufficient food to feed everybody, the extent of hunger is not only a moral outrage, but a manifestation of the world community's collective failure to put in place policies and programmes with long-term vision.

It is particular tragic that 300 million children are hungry because the negative effects of hunger on a child's growing body and mind are life-long and often irreversible. The burden of child malnutrition is carried not only by the individuals but also by entire societies. Malnutrition has serious developmental implications. According to the World Bank "the MDGs cannot be reached without significant progress in eliminating malnutrition."

The report of the Hunger Task Force of the Millennium Project underscores that preventing hunger at critical moments in a person's life represents an investment in future health, economic productivity and food security. Pregnant and lactating mothers and their infants, young children need access to lifecycle nutrition programmes, safety nets and fortified foods. Nutrition interventions targeted at young children and mothers need to be higher among government priorities. WFP stands ready to lend whatever support it can to governments and other stakeholders — be it in terms of policy dialogue, support to industry for micronutrient fortification, or targeted food-based interventions in support of social protection schemes.

I would like to call your attention to one particular recommendation of the Millennium Project that offers hope in the face of pessimistic reports of lack of progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Recommendation Five calls for governments to invest more in "quick wins" - proven interventions that can make an immediate impact on progress towards the MDGs. One of the quick wins identified in the report is, and I quote, "Expansion of school meal programmes to cover all children in hunger hotspots using locally produced foods no later than 2006." WFP calls on the international community to make this recommendation a reality. A starting point for such an effort would be increased financial and political support for the "home grown" school feeding initiative in Africa supported jointly by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the World Food Programme.

The focus of our event today is on long-term development goals and objectives. But we cannot forget the immediate impact on lives of the many humanitarian emergencies our world is facing. Nothing has brought this message home more than the pictures of unimaginable destruction we all have all sent from the recent Asia tsunami. From the depths of this tragedy, the world is coming together to help those who survive return to productive lives. WFP is playing an active part in Tsunami relief, already providing food assistance to over one million tsunami-affected persons in Sri Lanka , Indonesia , the Maldives and Somalia . We thank the donors - governments, corporations, non-governmental organizations such as the American Red Cross and ordinary citizens - who have generously contributed to WFP tsunami relief efforts. Your actions will help ensure that lack of money will not be an obstacle to reaching all those who need our help recovering from this terrible tragedy.

Let us also remember the millions of other victims of natural disaster and conflict that need our help, in parts of the world that do not always get our attention. In the Congo and Sudan and Afghanistan and Haiti , there are women, children, and men who are as vulnerable to hunger, disease, death and despair as those in the Tsunami region. They deserve our help as well.

The words Pope John Paul II recently pronounced in his New Year Greetings naturally come to mind: we live in a fruitful world which could provide plenty for everybody, yet some of us have too much and others not enough. The alarm has been sounded by competent organisations to alleviate the "food challenge" in the world, but there remains a lot to be done yet. The Pope emphasized rightly that an adequate response to this need, growing in scale and urgency, calls for a vast moral mobilization of public opinion; the same applies all the more to political leaders, especially in those countries benefiting from a prosperous standard of living.

In the end, there is a message of hope amidst deprivation that is shared by both the Millennium Report and the generous response of the world to the Tsunami victims' needs. That message is that the problems are not too big to address; there are proven means to tackle and solve them. The money required to solve these problems is large but not so large that we cannot find it when we have the will to do so. Let us leave this room determined to translate the recommendations of the Millennium report into real progress towards meeting the developments. The hundreds of millions of children who could escape poverty and hunger were we to make these goals a reality will thank you for your efforts. There can be no better reward than those thanks.