With all but one of the G-8 leaders having failed to attend and no new financial commitments to ending hunger, the summit in Rome has left many wondering what purpose it served. The United Nations World Summit on Food Security in Rome had all the signs and trappings of a world-class summit: helicopters buzzing overhead for days, whole city blocks roped off to traffic, hundreds of police on guard, and crowds of well-heeled officials from around the globe. Inside the huge, modern, monolithic Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters, just across the street from the ancient Roman Circus Maximus, leaders and diplomats from around the globe spoke one after another of the tragedy of hunger, which now affects over a billion people, more than ever before. Yet despite pleas for action from everyone from Pope Benedict XVI to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, no new commitments have come - neither for more money to bolster agriculture in developing nations, nor to the UN's proposed date of 2025 as the target for ridding the world of malnutrition. Instead, in a watered down statement, already released on the first day of the summit, nations pledged to try to cut world hunger in half by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come "at the earliest possible date."
The United Nations World Summit on Food Security in Rome had all the signs and trappings of a world-class summit: helicopters buzzing overhead for days, whole city blocks roped off to traffic, hundreds of police on guard, and crowds of well-heeled officials from around the globe.
Inside the huge, modern, monolithic Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters, just across the street from the ancient Roman Circus Maximus, leaders and diplomats from around the globe spoke one after another of the tragedy of hunger, which now affects over a billion people, more than ever before.
Yet despite pleas for action from everyone from Pope Benedict XVI to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, no new commitments have come - neither for more money to bolster agriculture in developing nations, nor to the UN's proposed date of 2025 as the target for ridding the world of malnutrition. Instead, in a watered down statement, already released on the first day of the summit, nations pledged to try to cut world hunger in half by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come "at the earliest possible date."
This kind of problem cannot be eradicated except by changing those political and economic systems. Recent experience shows that this cannot be done from the outside.
