UN Programme, Agency or Fund

4 June 2008: Speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on

World Food Security, which convened in Rome, Italy, from 3-5 June 2008, Louise

Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the food crisis is a

forceful signal “about individual human rights and the need for collective

action.” Reporting on a special session of the Human Rights Council on the food

emergency, she called for a human rights framework to analyze the causes of the

crises and “to clarify the power imbalances inside and between countries that

trigger or exacerbate the food crisis, including unfair trade practices or

skewed policies involving incentives and subsidies.”

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3 June 2008: Speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on

World Food Security, which convened in Rome, Italy, from 3-5 June 2008, Emile

Frison, Chair of the Alliance of Centres supported by the Consultative Group on

International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and Director General of Bioversity

International, said that, among other factors, lack of investment in

agricultural research has contributed to the global food price crises. He

highlighted the importance of such investment, citing a World Bank report on

investment into agricultural development that found “an average internal rate

of return of 43 percent.”

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3 June 2008: Noting that food choices and nutrition are

highly sensitive to food prices, World Health Organization (WHO)

Director-General Margaret Chan sent a message to the FAO High-Level Conference

on World Food Security, which convened in Rome, Italy from 3-5 June 2008,

highlighting that “the food crisis is a direct threat to much hard-won progress

in health development.”

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30 May 2008: This UN Food and Agriculture Organization study

examines the impact of biofuel production on the human rights to adequate food

and to be free from hunger. It was authored by Asbjørn Eide, senior fellow of the

Norwegian Center for Human Rights at the University of Oslo, and seeks to

contribute to the present discussion on soaring food prices, climate change and

biofuels.

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3 June 2008: UN Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon urged “bold and urgent steps” to tackle the global food crisis in his

statement to the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security, which

convened in Rome, Italy, from 3-5 June 2008. Noting that food production will

have to rise by 50% by the year 2030 to meet rising demand, he said “it is

important that our longer term focus is on improving world food security - and

remains so for some years.”

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3 June 2008: In his opening statement to the High-Level

Conference on World Food Security in Rome, Italy, FAO Director-General Jacques

Diouf called on Heads of State to make urgently needed investments in

agriculture to address the global food crisis and ensure long term food security.

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3

June 2008: Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme

(WFP), speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security, which

convened from 3-5 June 2008, warned that the global food crisis is threatening

to “plunge another 130 million people into life threatening hunger.” She said

the world has the means to defeat hunger, but high fuel and food prices

threaten to “short circuit” this potential by undoing many of the achievements

made towards global food security. She endorsed the UN Task Force's plan of

action and outlined the WFP's contributions towards its implementation, including

working with governments to assess needs and vulnerabilities at the household

level and scaling up safety net programmes.

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5 June

2008: The International Labour Organization (ILO) rolled out its Green Jobs

Initiative, aimed at easing the transition to green business and jobs, on World

Environment Day. Speaking about the Initiative, Juan Somavia, ILO

Director-General, said “green

growth and avoiding dangerous climate change depend on greener enterprises and

green jobs.”

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5 June

2008: The UN World

Tourism Organization (UNWTO) launched two publications on World Environment

Day, 5 June 2008. The first, produced in collaboration with the UN Environment

Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), as well as

the University of Oxford's Centre for the Environment, focuses on “Climate

Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector: Frameworks, Tools and

Practices.” 

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5 June 2008: The UN Environment Programme's (UNEP)

International Children's Painting Competition this year was on the theme

“Climate Change: Actions We Can Take Now.”

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