Gorta World Food Day 2007:Conference Tackles World Hunger Issues
Friday, October 12th 2007
PRESS RELEASE
Dr. Glenn Denning, Director, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, will deliver the keynote speech.
Over 840 million people globally go hungry every day.
This startling statistic will be highlighted at the Gorta World Food Day Conference on Tuesday, October 16th at the Institute of Bankers, 1 North Wall Quay, Docklands, Dublin 1. ‘The Right to Food’, the theme of this year’s conference, is the right of every person to have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active, healthy life.
Brian Hanratty, CEO, Gorta stated that ‘By recognising the Right to Food, governments have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill this right. In order to achieve the number one Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger by half by 2015, efforts are needed to give a voice to the hungry and to strengthen governments’ capacity to meet their obligations’.
‘On the eve of the commemoration of 60 years since the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, some rights, like the Right to Food, are overshadowed by those that have received more political and public support, yet severe food insecurity affects at least one-seventh of the world’s population’ he said.
In celebrating World Food Day, GORTA – The Freedom from Hunger Council of Ireland, has called on Irish people to reaffirm their commitment towards building a prosperous Africa capable of achieving its fullest potential in order to play a more significant role in the world today.
The Conference will be launched by Mr. Michael Kitt, T.D., Minister for State for Overseas Aid, at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Other speakers include:
- Cletus Babu, Chairman, Social Change and Development (SCAD), from the Tamil Nadu province, India.
- Isabella Rae, Legal Officer, UN FAO Right to Food Unit, Rome.
- Mairead McGuinness, MEP, Dublin.
- Her Excellency, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Manette Ramaili.
- Joe Walsh, Chair, Hunger Task Force, Dublin.
- Rev. Uel Marrs, Presbyterian Mission, Belfast.
- Tom O Keeffe, AIG, Dublin.
- Sr. Ursula Sharpe, Medical Missionaries of Mary, Dublin.
ENDS
Further information is available from Brian Hanratty, CEO, Office 01 661 5522, Mobile 087 258 9768, email ceo@gorta.org or Adrienne Dunne, Manager-Marketing and Communications, Office 01 664 0157, Mobile 087 786 2868, email adrienne.dunne@gorta.org web www.gorta.or
EDITORS NOTES
GORTA-The Freedom from Hunger Council of Ireland
- Gorta’s mission is to work for a world free from the injustices of chronic hunger, poverty and disease, having special regard for the plight of children and the empowerment of women. Gorta establishes partnerships with local communities, and supports local leadership to ensure their needs are met in a sustainable way.
- Programmes and projects supported by Gorta are located predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa where the need is greatest. Their objective is to help people become self-sufficient in food production and income generation thereby creating a secure future for generations to come. Gorta supports agricultural activities including livestock rearing, irrigation schemes and other water-based projects. The support of education, healthcare initiatives and income generating activities also forms part of Gorta’s work.
- Gorta was the first overseas development organisation to be set up in Ireland. It was established by the Department of Agriculture in 1965 at the request of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and has since become an independent NGO. Since its inception, Gorta has channeled the contributions of Irish people to over 2,000 projects in the developing world.
WORLD FOOD DAY
- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945.
- The right to food is the inherent human right of every woman, man, girl and boy, wherever they live on this planet.
- The choice of The Right to Food as the theme for 2007 World Food Day demonstrates increasing recognition by the international community of the important role of human rights in eradicating hunger and poverty, and hastening and deepening the sustainable development process.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 first recognized the right to food as a human right. It was then incorporated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 11) adopted in 1966 and ratified by 156 states, which are today legally bound by its provisions.
- The expert interpretation and more refined definition of this right are contained in General Comment 12 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1999). The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security – the Right to Food Guidelines – were adopted by the FAO Council in 2004 and provide practical recommendations on concrete steps for the implementation of the right to food.
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Heads of Government from all around the world have committed§ themselves to working towards real long-lasting change in Developing Countries; to reduce hunger, poverty, gender inequality, disease and many other hardships suffered by hundreds of millions of people every day. 2015 was set as the date by which these ‘Millennium Development Goals’ were to be achieved. Gorta has dedicated itself to working as part of the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
- Cletus Babu, Chairman, SCAD
Cletus Babu grew up in a remote village in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. He started with nothing, simply educating the poor in the Cheranmahadevi area but in 1985, he established the organisation Social Change and Development (SCAD), for which he now is Chairman and Managing Director. - Isabella Rae, Legal Officer, UNFAO Right to Life
Isabella Rae is a legal officer in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She works with the Right to Food Unit on mainstreaming a rights based approach to food security in development projects and implementing the right to food at country level. Isabella is currently completing a Ph.D on justiciability of the Right to Food. - Mairead McGuinness, MEP
Mairead McGuinness, Fine Gael MEP for Ireland East, serves on the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and on the Budgets and Petitions Committees. Very active on agriculture and rural development, global development policy, the environment and food safety and security, Mairead is a member of Inter-Party Groups on Disability and Children’s Rights. She also chaired the recent inquiry into the demise of Equitable Life. - Sr. Ursula Sharpe, MMM
Sister Ursula Sharpe, Assistant Congregational Leader of the Medical Missionaries of Mary comes from Ardee, Co. Louth. She has worked in Bangladesh and Rwanda with Concern, and has spent many years in Uganda. She is a nurse midwife best known for her work in founding the Outreach Programme for people with HIV/AIDS and orphans - based at Masaka, Uganda. This work, involving so much bereavement, led her to study for her MA in Counselling Psychology at Makerere University. - Michael Kitt, Minister of State for Overseas Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs
Has been recently elected as a Fianna Fail TD in the 30th Dail. He is a public representative for Galway East and has been committed to public service for 32 years. For the last five years he has been party spokesperson for the Environment in the Seanad and sat on the Joint Committee for Foreign Affairs. He also chaired the sub-committee on overseas aid. He is a former national school teacher and has an interest in education issues. - Joe Walsh, Chairman, Hunger Task Force
Joe Walsh was T.D. for the West Cork constituency until May 2007 and is the Chairman of the Hunger Task Force. He served as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food from 1987-1992. He was appointed to the critical Government position of Minister for Agriculture and Food in 1992 and served in this position until 2004. During this period he demonstrated his outstanding leadership abilities while presiding over a period of unprecedented growth and development in the Irish food industry. - Dr Glenn Denning, Director of the MDG Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
Glenn Denning joined the Earth Institute at Columbia University in July 2004 where he is Senior Research Scholar and Associate Director of the Tropical Agriculture and Environment Program. Denning helped establish the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, and has served as its Director since inception. With more than 25 years of experience in international agricultural research and development, Denning provides leadership to the Centre’s agenda in agriculture and rural development and its support to the African Green Revolution. - Rev Uel Marrs, Presbyterian Mission
In 2002 Rev Uel Marrs took up the post of Executive Secretary of the Board of Mission Overseas of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. When not engaged in administration at PCI’s headquarters in Belfast, he visits widely with PCI’s partners, projects, and Irish missionaries. - Tom O’Keeffe, Vice President and Director – Global Investment Services
Mr. O’Keeffe joined AIG Investments Ireland Limited in September 1995 and is responsible for the strategic and general management of the AIG Investments Ireland Limited Global Operations team who provide full middle and back office capabilities to portfolio management teams based around the AIG Investment global network. The team is responsible for day-to-day multi-functional services on assets valued at US$155 billion with annual turnover of US$600billion.
