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World Food Day: Leaders rally for concrete and resolute actions; help to farmers
Baku, October 19 (AZERTAC). On the occasion of this year`s World Food Day, Pope Benedict XVI, Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf called for global unity to find resolute and concrete actions against hunger by producing more food in the countries where the hungry live.
“Responding properly to the hunger problem requires urgent, resolute and concerted action by all relevant actors and at all levels. It calls for the need for all of us to be united,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. He said the theme for this year`s World Food Day “United Against Hunger” underlines that achieving food security is not the responsibility of one single party; it is the responsibility of all of us.”
In a statement to the World Food Day ceremony in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said that “in order to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, obstacles of self-interest must be overcome so as to make room for a fruitful gratuitousness, manifested in international cooperation as an expression of genuine fraternity.”
“Everyone - from individuals to the organizations of civil society, States and international institutions - needs to give priority to one of the most urgent goals for the human family: freedom from hunger,” the Pope said. “In order to achieve freedom from hunger it is necessary to ensure that enough food is available, but also that everyone has daily access to it.”
The Pope praised FAO`s 1billionhungry project which he said “has highlighted the need for an adequate response both from individual countries and from the international community, even when the response is limited to emergency aid.” Both the Pope and Diouf stressed the right to food.