UN food conference to launch alliance against hunger (2nd Roundup)

Madrid - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged on Monday that the administration of President Barack Obama would seek a new engagement between donors, states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector to fight hunger. The eradication of hunger was among Obama's priorities, Clinton told a United Nations conference on food security in the Spanish capital Madrid via video. The conference, bringing together ministers or other delegates from about 100 countries, charted action against the global food crisis aggravated by the economic crash. The conference would launch a Global Alliance against Hunger, which will be based on 'dialogue,' Spanish senior official Soraya Rodriguez said. Political engagement is needed to give the food crisis priority on the international agenda, Rodriguez stressed, explaining that the alliance would include donor and partner countries, international organizations and financial institutions. The international financial crisis could neutralize the gains made by some countries in increasing their food security, said Jacques Diouf, general director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The number of malnourished people has increased by tens of millions in the recent years, reaching a total of 963 million worldwide, Diouf said earlier Monday on inaugurating the conference. This happened while world cereal production reached a new record in 2008, he pointed out. Development aid to agriculture and cattle raising had gone down from 18 per cent of global aid in 1980 to only 3 per cent, Diouf said, urging the international community to mobilize more resources against hunger. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stressed the negative impact of rising food prices and the international financial slowdown, describing the food crisis as a threat to global stability. The meeting is scheduled to be closed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Tuesday. The conference was aimed at charting the progress in meeting the goals of the Rome food summit in June 2008. It will draw a road map to ensure the enforcement of the Rome agreements, issuing a Madrid declaration on how to move forward, according to Spanish government sources. Representatives of several NGOs demonstrated outside the conference building, stressing that the meeting should not become a 'farce.' The demonstrators accused the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank of having created the food crisis with their neo-liberal policies.