MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said Tuesday that “with the global economy still struggling to emerge from recession and the countries of the Americas feeling the negative effects of the economic downturn, the issue of food security and the need for increased attention and investment in the agricultural sector and rural communities is now more urgent than ever.”
Secretary General Insulza made the call at the Opening Session of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting, “Agriculture and Rural Life in the Americas,” which is being held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, until Thursday, October 29. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mr. Bruce Holding, chaired the session, which was also attended by the Minister of Agriculture and Fishing of Jamaica, Christopher Tufton, and the Director General of the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA), Chelston Brathwaite.
The head of the OAS stressed that the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimates that approximately 27 million people who had managed to emerge from poverty during the recent economic growth will likely continue to slip back into poverty, a situation that will make it very difficult for some countries in the Hemisphere to reach the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by 50 per cent by 2015. The World Food Program is also concerned that despite lower fuel and food prices, the global economic recession is making hunger a reality for millions of people once again.
This trend can and must be stopped in the region, according to Secretary General Insulza. “We cannot relax in our efforts to improve food security and reduce poverty in our region. Our hemisphere is too rich in resources, technology and ideas, for any man, woman or child to go hungry,” he said.
The OAS Secretary General identified several challenges, such as the diminishing investment and decreasing interest of the younger generations and the impact of climate change, but added that none of them are “insurmountable, if we work together and embrace the multidimensional approach to agricultural and rural development being advocated by the Inter-American institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and recently reaffirmed by the leaders of this Hemisphere” in the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Secretary General Insulza also highlighted how the OAS is contributing to the fight against hunger and poverty with initiatives such as the Inter-American Social Protection Network, the Inter-American Network for Disaster Mitigation and other activities of the Department of Sustainable Development within rural communities.
Fighting poverty, he added, goes beyond the survival of persons and reaches even political systems. “Poverty and food insecurity threaten the sustainability of our democracies, because hunger can drive people to protest in the streets,” he said. Therefore, he added, “the OAS stands ready to work with IICA, other inter-American partners and our Member States.”
