FROM THE FIELD
Concern Worldwide is calling for urgent action by world leaders to prevent a looming humanitarian emergency caused by spiraling food prices around the world.Speaking after meeting the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington today, Concern CEO Tom Arnold warned that rising food prices could be devastating for the poorest people. If action is not taken immediately, progress made on the Millennium Development Goal of halving world hunger by 2015 could be severely eroded. “Imagine an already poverty-stricken family of five in Africa or southern Asia living on about US $5 dollars. They already spend about 70% of their income on food. They have seen that expenditure jump by the equivalent of US $1.50 in the past six months,” said Mr Arnold. “Those of us who are lucky enough to live in the developed northern countries are much better able to absorb that. We can cut back on luxury goods; we can cut back on the amount of petrol we use. But if you are a subsistence farmer or a mother living in an urban slum, you can’t. That won’t just mean a sharp rise in severe malnutrition among potentially millions of people, it will also have a knock-on effect on people’s ability to send their children to school, their access to healthcare and more,” he warned.The Concern CEO presented his blueprint for action on the crisis to almost 100 members of the CFR – a non-partisan think tank on foreign relations and one of the world’s most well respected and prestigious organisations in its class. Concern’s recommendations include a number of short, medium and long-term measures that need to be taken:Recommendations:[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
