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Summary 
 

High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy
3-5 June 2008 | Rome, Italy

Highlights for Thursday, 5 June 2008
The High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy concluded on 5 June 2008, at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. In the morning, the High-Level Segment heard statements by Heads of Delegations, representatives of Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations, and the private sector. The Committee of the Whole (COW) met during the day to review the draft declaration. After prolonged negotiations, delegates adopted the declaration en bloc, with agreement that statements by Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba be annexed to the report of the Conference. A closing plenary then adopted the Report and Declaration of the Conference by acclamation. The Conference was closed at 9:36 pm

 

 
Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General and Henri Djombo, Minister of Forestry and Environment of the Congo, acting on behalf of COW Chair Denis Soussa N'Guesso

Daily highlights:
Tuesday, 3 June - Wednesday, 4 June - Thursday, 5 June


CLOSING PLENARY

 
Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General and Henri Djombo, Minister of Forestry and Environment of the Congo, acting on behalf of COW Chair Denis Soussa N'Guesso

  
James Butler, FAO Deputy Director-General and Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General

EVENING SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE:

 
Venezuela stated it would not block consensus in adopting the Declaration, but noted it saw little to celebrate, and expressed “regret that an opportunity was lost” to combat the “structural problem” of hunger.
The Congo asked the other delegations to remember the “children who are dying each day,” and wondered how the group could hesitate when considering a declaration that could help address the sensitive and important question of world hunger.

   
Argentina emphasized its solidarity with the millions of people who suffer from hunger, but refused to support the Declaration, as it stated “when one starts on the basis of a mistaken diagnosis, then no appropriate remedy can be found."

   Cuba stated that the “rich and the powerful continue to block” true solutions to hunger. He condemned the lack of an objective analysis of the causes of world hunger, and listed amongst these: agricultural subsidies; monopolies on agriculture; and models of production and consumption in the North.

   Slovenia, on behalf of the European Union, and in concert with those speaking on behalf of the groups of Africa, Asia, the Near East, North America and the Southwest Pacific, stressed that the declaration should be adopted en bloc.

The afternoon plenary to adopt the final conference declaration, was delayed by more than three hours, as members of the G77/China met to discuss last-minute changes to the text.

.

The Committee of the Whole reconvened at 6:45 to adopt its report. The EU, however, asked for suspension of the meeting as some of its member countries were still deliberating the draft declaration.

 

   

 

HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT
Statements by Heads of Delegation

 
Brendan Smith, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Ireland, called for the successful completion of the Doha Round of negotiations.
Christiaan de Graaf, Minister for Agriculture of Botswana, urged a long-term focus on enabling farmers to apply sustainable, climate-friendly technologies for commercial production.

   
Mahamane Moussa, Minister of Agriculture of Niger, highlighted the impacts of climate change in his country and called for donors’ sustained support for sustainable agriculture.
Kinga Göncz, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hungary, described her country’s national efforts to implement sustainable agriculture and preserve the rural lifestyle.
   Mary Chinery-Hesse, Chief Adviser to the President of Ghana, stated that the FAO has lived up to the conclusion that if it did not already exist, it would have to be invented.

   
Almaz N. Khamzayev, Ambassador of Kazakhstan, highlighted the success of domestic measures to strengthen food security.
Esteban Elmer Catarina Mamani,
Ambassador of Bolivia, expressed the hope that the Conference declaration would not only outline solutions to, but also the causes of, the food crisis.		   Gladys Francisca Urbaneja Durán, Ambassador of Venezuela, identified market speculation and export-only agribusiness as core causes of the food crisis.

 
Sitki Ugur Ziyal, Ambassador of Turkey
Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme

 
Henry Saragih, General Coordinator, La Vía Campesina
Grégoire de Kalbermatten, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat Desertification

 
Xavier Beulin, Chair of IFAP’s Group on Grains and Oilseeds, and Vice-President of the French Farmers’ Federation
(FNSEA)
Benjamin Victor Powless
Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)

 


MORNING SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE:
Henri Djombo, Minister of Forestry and Environment of the Congo, acting on behalf of COW Chair Denis Soussa N'Guesso, suspended the meeting and conferred with the heads of the regional groups.

 
Venezuela said the suggested changes had added value and were not new, nor conflicting with general interest or international law.

 
Slovenia said the EU could not accept changes to the document at this point.
Pakistan reiterated its support for en bloc adoption of the draft declaration.

 

Snapshots

 


Daily highlights:
Tuesday, 3 June - Wednesday, 4 June - Thursday, 5 June



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