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 05 September 2008 09:44 BST

UN to set up taskforce to tackle global food crisis

Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 12:01
Ban Ki Moon will head the new taskforce
The United Nations (UN) is to set up a taskforce to tackle the current global food crisis.

UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon announced today that the new taskforce will aim to tackle the food crisis and avert "social unrest on an unprecedented scale".

"The first and immediate priority that we all agree is that we must feed the hungry," Mr Ban said at the spring session of the Chief Executives Board.

"This has been a global challenge, so we need to address it in a collective way – globally," he added.

The secretary general will head the unit, whose first aim will be meeting the $755 million (£382 million) shortfall in finding for the World Food Program.

"Without full funding of these emergency requirements we risk again the specter of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale," Mr Ban told reporters after the UN meeting in Bern.

"We anticipate that additional funding will be required.

"In the longer term, the international community, particularly the leaders of the international community, should sit down together on an urgent basis and address how we can, first of all, improve these economic systems, distributions systems, as well as how we can promote the improved production of agricultural products," he added.

The UN has claimed that 100 million people worldwide are going short of food at present.

Mr Ban is scheduled to meet with Pascal Couchepin, the president of Switzerland later today.End of story


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