Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Geneva, 18 November 1996
N° 60

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organization of parliaments, told the closing session of the World Food Summit in Rome on 17 November 1996, that parliaments around the world were "clearly committed" to achieving practical results in the follow-up to the Summit's Plan of Action on world food security.

The President of the IPU Council (governing body), Dr Ahmed Fathy Sorour, who is also President of the Egyptian People's Assembly, told government representatives in a speech at the Summit's final plenary session that over 200 parliamentarians from 75 countries had met in the Italian Senate in Rome on 15 November for a "Parliamentarians' Day" and had "unequivocally decided" to commit themselves to promoting implementation of the Summit's Plan of Action within their respective parliaments.

They also promised to accord "greater priority in the allocation of public funds" to sectors essential to food security, especially the agricultural sector, Sorour said, adding that "it will be for parliaments to see to it that these funds are used as effectively as possible".

"In a democratic society, implementation of major political and economic State commitments necessarily involves national institutions of legislative power. Parliamentarians, as elected representatives of people, have a special role and a special responsibility, particularly when the issue concerned is of such fundamental importance as that of the right to food," Dr Sorour declared.

He went on to say that "one of the major tasks for national parliaments after the Summit will be encouraging governments to adopt economic and social policies that are in full conformity with the principles and commitments of the World Food Summit".

Sorour noted that the IPU had already foreseen a mechanism to monitor - in co-operation with the FAO - implementation, at the parliamentary level, of the commitments taken in Rome.

The "Parliamentarians' Day" Declaration, that was conveyed to delegates at the Summit, places special emphasis on poverty - "which must be eradicated if the proclaimed goal of 'food for all' is to be attained" - and on the need for increasing the efficiency of agricultural and food production - "key to ensuring an adequate food supply".

While reaffirming the right of all human beings to enjoy an adequate, healthy and well-balanced diet, the Declaration endorses the relevant IPU resolutions, in particular the one adopted at the recent IPU Conference in Beijing on policies and strategies to ensure the right to food, and it stresses the MPs' support for the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Summit's Plan of Action, as well as for the FAO programmes in the field.

The Declaration also contains the following specific pledges made by parliamentarians for follow-up action to the World Food Summit:

• ensure that sectors essential to food security, especially the agricultural sector, receive greater priority in the allocation of public funds, including official development assistance, and to see to it that these funds are used as effectively as possible;
• ensure that activities essential to food security, in particular agricultural activities, enjoy a legislative framework which is conducive to their development in an environmentally friendly manner and which guarantee that all enjoy access to the means of production, to training and information, and to an adequate, healthy and balanced diet;
• encourage our governments to adopt economic and social policies that are in full conformity with the principles and commitments of the World Food Summit;
• promote international co-operation in all forms, including the signing of international agreements, in particular with regard to international trade and access to technologies.