• by Soraya Rodriguez
• Tuesday, March 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Food security is one of the major challenges we face in the world economic crisis. Now more than ever it is urgent that we not relegate the Millennium Development Goals to the back burner but rather fulfil this commitment to fight against extreme hunger and poverty that was signed by all UN member nations in 2000, writes Soraya Rodriguez, Spain's secretary of state for international co- operation.

In this article, the author writes that it is unacceptable that the poor suffer the most from the global crisis. The last UN report states that the increase in food prices has left another 100 million people in extreme poverty. The international high-level meeting on food security will be held in Madrid January 26-27 and supported and attended by UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon.

It is important to link the UN to the debate on the economic crisis and the reform of the international financial architecture, because paradoxically the current grave situation is opening certain opportunities: the reduction of poverty and the achievement of the MDGs are also appropriate policies to address the crisis because they will make the world more just, solidary, peaceful, and safe.

(*) Soraya Rodriguez is Spain's secretary of state for international co-operation.

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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