I am happy and proud to be with you today in Rome in this important event to announce the FAO-Nobel Peace Laureates Alliance for Food Security and Peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I am happy and proud to be with you today in Rome in this important event to announce the FAO-Nobel Peace Laureates Alliance for Food Security and Peace.

The comic actor Charlie Chaplin used to say that hunger has no conscience. We can add whatever comes to our mindto this wonderful statement to express our rejection of hunger.It is indeed shameful, amid this tremendous cultural renaissance, to see millions of people still suffering from food shortage and this unjust equation must stop.

Under this equation, globalization is replete with assets and resources, whereby some countries, institutions and individuals are accumulating huge fortunes, while in their neighborhoodthere is an unimaginable number of poor and hungry people!!!

 

Dear friends,

What awaits us all is a great humanistic struggle for a constructiveand more equitable globalization, whose resources would be sharedby everyone, not a passive globalization that will benefit to some persons whereasthe others will have to bear the brunt of its negative impacts and risks.

Rather than giving this topic ideological dimensions, it will be incumbent upon us to invest our strength and dedication in order to achieve one of the greatest goals of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda to eliminate hunger and poverty.

It is a matter of pride to us to be among those who are brandishing their hostility to poverty, hunger and theirassociated misery, distress and deprivation.

Hungershould not be allowed to occur anywhere in the world.

We should be able to take upour responsibility.

Eliminating hunger and poverty does not necessarily imply that we have taken a crucial step forward in building a fair, cooperative and united in solidarity human community, in which the land will be our homeand… humanity our nation.

Those who suffer have the right to find people who care for their misery and those who lack food have the right to access adequate food and water, as this falls within one the most important human rights, namely the right to life.

I have a dream, and I am confident that you share the same dream of a world without poverty and an earth without starving populations, neither on the land nor in the seas.

The elimination of hunger and poverty requires a very noble humanitarian goalwhich only needs a moral obligation towards its implementation; my conscience indeed keeps telling me that the rich have a mandatory obligation towards the poor out of justice, fairness and our common belonging to the human race.

This noble goal is highly important and can be achieved, if both rich and poor governments alike are serious about it and if the wealthy and those who can assist in alleviating hunger and povertyshow a great deal of moral integrity and humanitarian commitment.

It would be possible to allocate a percentage of the income of the states, enterprises and businessmen to eradicate hunger and poverty, that can be collected in a sustainable manner and distributed and channeled to the needy according to a set plan.

Countries, companies and businessmen worldwide possessoutrageouswealthsthatare being accumulated and stored in a shameful manner that harms the human conscience and lack moral integrity and a sense of responsibility towards millions of people who are starving, while they forget that the world has become a small village whose residents are aware of thesufferings and needs of each individual, and they would be pronounced guiltyunless they behave in a manner that uplifts human values and stands up for human solidarity.

Let us ask: how many rich nations have pledged a percentage of their domestic income to fight poverty, and when the time comes to fulfill their obligation they only offer a trivial amount or forget what they pledged.

In order to eradicate hunger and poverty in this world, we need a reasonable amount of money which is indeed affordable and does not even equal the amounts spent by some major countries on weapons.

What if the world governments allocated a percentage of their income to the United Nations in order to fund their effortsin fighting poverty?What if they allocated another percentage of their national income to combat domestic and regional poverty, according to binding programs and plans and programs?What if businessmen and companies allocated a percentage of their income to finance programs to fight poverty and eliminate hunger?It is inevitable that we will then reach "a world without poverty and an earth with no needy and hungry people".

 

Dear friends, 

We must look with admiration to the achievement we made with regard to the fight against hunger and poverty.

Indeed, I am honored that I was part of the UN high-level working group tasked with formulating the post-2015 development goals that span from reducing hunger and poverty worldwide as stipulated in the MDGs toeradicating hunger and ending poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030, as statedin the post-2015 SDGs.

The achievement of this great humanitarian objective undoubtedly requires considerable, serious and persistent world political mobilization, support and will, for the means are available but what is still lacking is the will, political will.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we fight hunger and poverty, we fight the sources of terrorism; for terrorism choosesits victims from the midst of poor communities and recruits its followers from among the downtrodden, and wherever there is hunger there are also inexhaustible sources of terrorism.

Peace cannot be achieved without food security just asfood securitycannot be achieved without peace.

Global food security will not be achieved without proper planning and a diligent strategy to solve conflicts and build peace in countries that suffer from civil wars and internal conflicts and to ensure they do not recur and to take preventive measures to avoid their eruption in communities threatened by potential outbreak of conflicts and infighting. Therefore, this requires a clear roadmap to resolve conflicts and ensure that they willnot happen again in order to guarantee a sustainable peace process.

One of the keyfactors to ensure the non-recurrence is to improve the living conditions of the citizens directly after embarking on the conflict resolution process all the way through a sustainable development process including the fight against poverty and hunger eradication, as well asputting in place relevant mechanisms to ensure non-recurrence of conflicts, since wars and conflicts lead us to death, poverty, hunger and famine, and I think that no one can say otherwise.

Any roadmap to be submitted for peacebuilding in any country- experiencing armed conflict and a civil strife-must focus on achieving the main goal of having "a state that has the monopoly over the possession of weapons and groups enjoying their right to organize themselves in political parties that participate in political and public life without exclusion, without deprivation and without the use of force to achieve their goals".

Any party offering peace initiatives here or there should take that into account in order to make its initiative a success or at least a major milestone on the road to success.

It can also be argued that any political transition is a strategy that is doomed to failureunless it is accompanied by a concomitant process of economic transition that achieves food security and ensures remarkable improvement to the lives of the majority of citizens, especially those suffering from hunger, poverty and theabsence of basic services.

We will also have to achieve a transitional justice that guarantees a transition to the future without recurrence of conflict and without revenge or retaliation but through the compensation of victims and the provision of care to war victims such as the wounded, the handicapped and the families of victims.

Measures should also be taken to avoid recurrence of conflict in the future, knowing that the most important of these measures would be to ensure that the perpetrators of massacres and crimes against humanity do not go unpunished.

It is important to focus on priority countries such as Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and countries in Africa and from different parts of the world, and to ensure this is done in accordance with a long-term strategic plan that goes along with the post-2015 global development agenda.

 

Dear friends, 

The FAO-Nobel Peace Laureates Alliancecan work with a great deal of dynamismtomake achievements in this direction, since peacemaking goes along with the fight against hunger.

This takes a serious sense of responsibility, which is available in my opinion.

In addition to this, this important taskrequires efficient mechanisms that guarantee planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in a sustainable manner in countries suffering from conflicts or where potential conflicts are expected.

Therefore, the Alliance will have, as part of its strategic plan, to aim at eliminating hunger by 2030, so there is no hungry or poor by that year's end.

This would require some sort of unity and solidarity among UN and regional agencies, the governments and the private sector so as to achieve this strategic goal of the sustainable development goals.

This in turn requires adequate funding of programs to fight hunger together with the resolution of conflicts and wars and that these funds are made available.

Dear friends, Hunger is indeed a tough word, and no one can defend hunger and live his life normally with a clear conscience while human beings are dying of hunger and cannot satiate their hunger.

 

Let us do our job.

We have no right to remain indifferent towards the sorrows of people, otherwise we will be extremely wicked persons. I do not think that anyone will be happy if he or she turns into a person lacking moral commitment towards such an issue and towards the oppressed, such as those who always or sometimes do not find anything to eat. How miserable life would be without a sense of otherness for the needy and the hungry. Let us walk towards our goal with confidence and determination: Towards a world without poverty, hunger or war, let us do our duty... Let us start now...

Right away and without delay!