QNA/Rome
HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday said poverty poses a major threat to world security, more dangerous perhaps than that of nuclear weapons.
Addressing the opening session of the World Summit on Food Security at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s headquarters in Rome, he said:
“On the one hand we are in a world that has a massive ability to create progress and wealth in an unprecedented way, a world that possesses an explicit efficiency in the manufacture and supply of commodities glutting its markets in an unrestricted manner and a world linked by a revolution in the means of communications which has turned it into a global village.”
But he said the world was facing a problem that couldn’t be ignored. “That is the problem of poverty affecting half of the world’s population, and almost one-fifth of the people on earth are being stifled by it.”
The Emir said the world cannot turn a blind eye to the “inevitable results of the contradictory circumstances.”
He said “the misery of poverty and famine affecting over 1.1bn people should not be considered as a mere food security issue, but rather a threat to the world security; more dangerous and closer to reality than the threat of nuclear weapons.”
The Emir noted that during an international summit in 1996, “we hoped every human being on earth would have the right to food sufficiency. But the reality is that we have not made progress but rather lagged far behind in our targets”
He added: “While we realise that there are reasons behind that which we can read, we are aware that the drastic political changes which took place in the last decade brought about major changes to the distribution of responsibilities among the world states.
“We are also aware that the global financial crisis has taken its toll on the rationality of handling the resources. But, that should not deter us from tackling poverty and famine as they have security and ethical imperatives,” the Emir said.
“It is worth remembering that in 1941 then US president Franklin Roosevelt, seeking to mobilise the whole world in the battle for freedom and democracy, stressed the importance of Four Freedoms for a better future for man. Roosevelt named them: the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.”
He said while “we are talking about food security, combating poverty and fending off the threat of starvation, we must also remember that we are in fact talking about the future of freedom and peace; and we are seriously looking into issuing a global undertaking that would make the fight against poverty and the eradication of famine a global responsibility through joint responsibility and solidarity and not through donations and generosity.”
The Emir underlined that “the international will which has faced the worst economic recession in modern history has begun to yield its concrete positive results. If the same will is available today, we will succeed in addressing the problem of food security, and our world today would become more secure and stable.”
He called upon the international community to double its efforts to control this problem and address its causes, particularly in Africa where many of its peoples suffer from poverty and malnutrition.
“In Qatar, we are keen on contributing to these efforts.”
Out of Qatar’s belief that national food security is part of the regional and international food security, “we established the Qatar National Food Security Programme in 2008, which aims to reduce Qatar’s reliance on food imports through the realisation of the principle of self-sufficiency. The programme will not only develop the recommendations for food security policy, but will also join regional and international organisations and non-governmental organisations to develop research and studies for best practices and optimal use of resources in the agricultural sector,” the Emir said. |
