accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations and that endanger food
security,
Convinced that each State must adopt a strategy consistent with its resources and capacities
to achieve its individual goals in implementing the recommendations contained in the Rome
Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action and, at the
same time, cooperate regionally and internationally in order to organize collective solutions to
global issues of food security in a world of increasingly interlinked institutions, societies and
economies where coordinated efforts and shared responsibilities are essential,
Recognizing that the problems of hunger and food insecurity have a global dimension and
that there has been insufficient progress made on reducing hunger, and that they could increase
dramatically in some regions unless urgent, determined and concerted action is taken, given the
anticipated increase in the world population and the stress on natural resources,
Noting that environmental degradation, desertification and global climate change are
factors contributing to destitution and desperation and have a negative impact on the realization
of the right to food, in particular in developing countries,
Expressing its deep concern at the number and scale of natural disasters, diseases and pests
and their increasing impact in recent years, which have resulted in massive loss of life and
livelihood and threatened agricultural production and food security, in particular in developing
countries,
Stressing the importance of reversing the continuing decline of official development
assistance devoted to agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total official development
assistance,
Welcoming the recent pledges to increase official development assistance devoted to
agriculture, and recalling that the realization of the right to food does not only entail increase in
productivity but also a holistic approach that includes a focus on smallholder and traditional
farmers and the most vulnerable groups and national and international policies that are conducive
to the realization of this right,
1.
Reaffirms that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity and
therefore requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and international
levels for its elimination;
2.
Also reaffirms the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food,
consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from
hunger, so as to be able to fully develop and maintain his or her physical and mental capacities;
3.
Considers it intolerable that more than 6 million children still die every year from
hunger-related illnesses before their fifth birthday, that there are at least 963 million
undernourished people in the world and that, while the prevalence of hunger has diminished, the
absolute number of undernourished people has been increasing in recent years when, according
to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the planet could
produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, twice the world’s present population;
4.
Expresses its concern that women and girls are disproportionately affected by
hunger, food insecurity and poverty, in part as a result of gender inequality and discrimination,
2