MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Smith
Today in New York I spoke at a forum on global food security co-hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.
I reiterated Australia's commitment to the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative, endorsed by the Prime Minister and 40 other leaders and heads of international organisations in July this year and reaffirmed at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh yesterday.
The L'Aquila Initiative is an agreement to act with the urgency needed to achieve global food security. It calls for stronger international coordination and approaches that address the multiple causes of food insecurity, including increased investment in agricultural research and rural development and renewed efforts to remove barriers to international trade in agricultural products.
Under the L'Aquila Initiative, donor countries and organizations have made a commitment to provide US$20 billion over three years for global action. This includes over $460million from Australia, previously announced in the 2009 Budget.
Australia's funding will support rural development programs, social safety net programs that cushion the impact of high food prices on the poor, and increased investments in agricultural productivity through research and development.
As part of this, additional funding will be provided to the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for adaptive research on agricultural production techniques.
At the forum, I spoke on the importance of coordinated multilateral action on food security, stressing the need for partnerships between United Nations agencies, the multilateral development banks, donor countries and developing countries to reduce food price volatility and food shortages.
The global food security crisis is far from over. While prices have come down since 2008, they remain high.
Poor households in developing countries, who often spend 70 per cent of their income on food, continue to suffer. They remain highly vulnerable to price fluctuations and to food shortages caused by inefficient food production, barriers to international trade or other factors such as the adverse impact of climate change.