Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that the global financial crisis cannot be used as "an excuse for inaction" in the worsening battle against "wrenching hunger" across the developing world.
Speaking in Dublin at a major international conference hosted by Concern Worldwide to mark World Food Day, Mr Annan urged political leaders to maintain their resolve to ending a situation where nearly one billion of
the world's population do not have enough food to eat on a day-to-day basis.
More than 200 Irish and international policy-makers and influential figures drawn from government, business, academia and major NGOs are attending the conference at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin.
They heard Mr Annan, who founded the UN Hunger Task Force and now chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, call governments to task over their slow response to the problem of global hunger in comparison to the swift reaction to the current turmoil in the financial system.
"The food crisis of recent months is now compounded by a global financial crisis. While national governments and international lenders scramble to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into failing banks - the developing world goes hungry....this is simply unacceptable. We must do something to stop it."
Saying the world was at a critical juncture, Mr Annan continued: "The world food crisis awakened the global community to the need for agricultural development to end hunger and spur growth in Africa. Yet today commitments to that goal are on shaky ground. The world financial crisis threatens to undermine further the political will needed to keep promises.
"The financial crisis cannot be an excuse for inaction. We must maintain our resolve. We can end hunger and poverty. Doing so is critical to Africa and to a healthy and resilient global food system."
Mr Annan added that the potential of Africa's agricultural sector is languishing as a result of 'decades of neglect'. He called for a comprehensive programme of support to Africa's smallholder farmers.
"On both national and international levels, we must reverse the policies of abandonment. We must help Africa's smallholder farmers to attain what has eluded them for so long: fully productive and profitable farms.
Africa can feed itself and rejoin the league of agriculture-exporting nations."
Special Advisor to the UN Secretary and author or the best-selling book,
An End to Poverty,Prof Jeffrey Sachs, told the conference he was honoured to celebrate Concern's 40th anniversary and the work of chief executive Tom Arnold, who he maintained was respected all over the world.
Commenting on this week's Budget, Prof Sachs said: "I very much appreciate that the Irish Government followed through on its aid commitment in what is no doubt the most difficult project in living memory in this country."
"The Government has made it very clear it is not going to pretend to balance the crisis on the backs of the world's poorest people because this is a tendency we may see in some of our Governments and Ireland said no, it remains committed to its development objective.
"The only way we are going to find security in what is clearly an insecure world is through following up on our commitments to address the poorest of the poor," he added.
Other speakers at today's conference include former president and ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and Sheila Sisulu of the World Food Programme