Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on World Food Day

October 16, 2010

The scale of chronic hunger in the world is massive - but it is also
measurable. One in six people in the world today is chronically hungry.
More than 200 million children suffer from undernutrition. Hunger stunts
the health and development of societies just as it limits the mental and
physical potential of children. But thanks to the efforts of world
leaders, international organizations, civil society and the private
sector, the solutions to global hunger have never been so well
understood, or carried so much potential. On World Food Day, I am proud
to join President Obama, Secretary Clinton and this growing global
consensus in calling attention to the urgent need for comprehensive,
sustainable action on global food security.

Recent years have given rise to exceptional challenges for the world's
hungry, from a spike in global food prices in 2007 and 2008 to
destabilizing events in countries like Pakistan and Haiti. But we have
also seen unprecedented global action. At the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals (MDG) Summit in September, world leaders devoted
special attention to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger,
including $22 billion in investments committed last year by the G-8 and
G-20, and noted a growing recognition among leaders of developing
countries about the need to invest in food security. In support of these
efforts, the United States has pledged at least $3.5 billion over three
years toward country-owned plans to improve food security, agricultural
production, and nutrition.

The United States is also proud to back innovative and collaborative
strategies for promoting the world's food security. The MDG Summit
served as the backdrop for the United States and Ireland to jumpstart
the UN's Scaling Up Nutrition framework, a strategy endorsed by 100
international partners to battle undernutrition. One plank of this
framework, "1,000 Days: Change a Life, Change the Future"
(www.thousanddays.org), is a joint commitment by developing countries,
multilateral organizations, donor governments, civil society and the
private sector to set concrete benchmarks that accelerate progress
toward improving maternal and child nutrition from pregnancy through age
two. Earlier this summer, the United States honored the winners of the
World Food Prize and announced the Norman Borlaug Commemorative Research
Initiative, recognizing in particular the cost effectiveness of high-
impact innovative investments and the value of scientific contributions
in the fight for food se
 curity.

Combating hunger's root causes serves America's interests by serving the
interests of all people. This movement promises improvement in global
standards of living, delivering higher returns for its investments;
promotes broad-based economic growth; and reinforces our common security
by investing in our common humanity. As President Obama has said, "all
of us must join together in this effort - not just because it is right,
but because by providing assistance to those countries most in need, we
will provide new markets, we will drive the growth of the future that
lifts all of us up."