First of all, I would like to express my happiness to be here with you. It is also gratifying that this meeting takes place in Colombia, which is shaking off the dust of war and moving confidently towards peace, development and stability.

Dear friends, 

On last Monday, October 16, the World Food Day was celebrated worldwide. It is definitely an important day in the lives of all peoples, as food is indispensable to all; to poor and rich, to young and old, to those living in the United States or in Kenya.

I am not going to talk to you about this axiomatic importance of food known to everyone, but rather to discuss how best to meet everyone’s need of food in the world; I literally mean every single one because it is truly a shame that this world has reached such technological, industrial and scientific advances while millions of people on this planet keep suffering from starvation and food shortage.  

We are gathered here to emphasize the food’s relevance to essential issues, such as peace, security, public health and development, which have directly profound impact on our lives and destinies. A world that is suffering from instability in an essential issue such as food would be much more likely to fail to achieve security, peace and development, and would remain paralyzed and unable to develop or make any progress. 

 

Dear friends, 

Food, peace and security, all together, are necessary for survival of all of us. Many people think that these needs could be separable. This may be true in theory, but in real terms, it is very difficult to provide enough and appropriate food to societies experiencing internal conflicts and civil wars or getting into external wars.

Therefore, it is necessary to make vigorous efforts to achieve peace by involving people in development plans, renouncing war, and engaging in agricultural and economic projects. This is the best way to change the reality of many communities suffering from conflicts and troubles.

To achieve such a thing, as I mentioned in another event, a noticeable improvement needs to be made to people's living conditions, leading to a sustainable development process that includes the fight against poverty and hunger eradication. Wars and conflicts lead us only to death, poverty, hunger and famine, and no one would claim otherwise. 

 

Dear friends, 

Despite the success of the global mobilization behind the Millennium Development Goals between 2000 to 2015 as for poverty eradication, the MDG target of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty was achieved in 2010, the proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions has fallen by almost half, and one in seven children worldwide are underweight, down from one in four in 1990, much more work still needs to be done. In my view, the focus should become on the goals of the post- 2015 development agenda.

Many things have been done in terms of poverty reduction and food shortage, but in return there is an increase in the number of people suffering from poverty and food shortage. So it is necessary not to rely on what we have done in this area, and we have to keep only working and working and not believe, even for a moment, that something has improved. 

Wars, among other causes, play a key role in leading to this unfortunate consequence, as fighters but not farmers are needed in wars and conflicts. The war economy is certainly not based on activities such as agriculture, and warlords pay no attention to how to feed people. Therefore, it is crucial to eradicate poverty and address food shortages by bringing peace and ending wars in many countries in accordance with clear principles so as to prevent any renewal of wars, and supporting anti-corruption policies in third world countries, where regimes live a life of extravagance while their peoples are living in extreme poverty. 

A large number of these regimes spend billions of dollars buying weapons, and this, as you know, directly causes the increase in poverty, corruption, food shortages and low levels of basic services such as education and health.

 

Dear friends, 

Urgent measures and steps need to be taken in order to prevent the imminent danger that threatens a large number of people, namely starvation. It is a shame to have hunger. Actually, advances at scientific, technological and knowledge levels would be meaningless when a serious threat called starvation spreads every day. According to the World Bank's 2016 report, the world needs to produce at least 50 percent more food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. The World Bank report says climate change would reduce crop yields by more than 25%, pointing out that depletion of land, biodiversity, oceans, forests and other forms of natural resources keep at unprecedented rates. It warns that if we don’t change the way we produce our food and manage natural resources, food security and the world’s poor people would be at risk. 

Enabling poor countries to use technology and modern irrigation methods in agriculture will inevitably contribute to resolving this dilemma. Many countries still use old irrigation methods, which cause to reduce crop yields and waste water that is originally too scarce in many of these countries.

As you see, there is a close link between food and politics, between war and climate and between development and corruption. The more societies move towards stability, development and transparent and fair policies are, the more corruption, poverty and hunger are prevented.

Therefore, we have to counter tyranny. Of course, decisive positions must be taken against militias and groups that resort to violence and terrorism, and decisive positions must also be taken against corrupt and despotic regimes and military coups. In the end, no real achievement could be achieved in terms of development and combating poverty under regimes and groups using weapons to make their own gains

 

Dear friends, 

I know that factors that have led to the food problem, are many, but I mainly tend to emphasize the need to pay enough attention to the problem of tyranny as it is the main cause behind corruption and civil strife, which cause disasters such as poverty, hunger and food shortages.

We must deal firmly with such a thing. Some may look at this standpoint as a bit of exaggeration, but it’s not because the despots hinder development, plunder their people’s wealth, set up prisons, practice terrorism, spread fear and ignite wars. 

To sum up, poverty and food shortage are a problem that may have many dimensions, but tyranny contributes to putting obstacles in the way of any effective solutions.

It’s okay to draw attention to the role of the climate in solving this problem, high fuel prices, water scarcity, and so on, but we shouldn’t forget the role of tyranny in spreading poverty and fear and in causing food shortage and development failure.

We have to say with a loud voice: no tyranny, no policies that create poverty, corruption and fear.

It’s time to say that.