By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PORT VILA, Vanuatu – Delegates are currently meeting in Vanuatu to discuss food security issues in the Pacific region.

There are currently 170 delegates meeting in the tiny island nation.  Many are concerned about the “urgent” and “enormous” challenge the food security issue poses in the nations of the Pacific.

Local agriculture and the fisheries are being threatened by globalization and climate change.  Hence, there is a great need for change.

The Summit supported the idea that everyone must ensure that all people in the Pacific have access to safe and nutritious food from the area, as it is a basic right of all humans.

According to Dr. Chen, South Pacific’s Representative for the World Health Organization and Chair of the Summit, the delegates have been discussing a “Framework for Action”, which would provide for working together to pool resources and coordinate amongst regional nations.  The goal of the plan is ultimately to “sustain human life, minimize early death and ensure healthy and productive people.”

Trade, health, and agriculture Ministers came together for the first time to deal with the food security issue and establish a plan that will promote countries taking the initiative to resolve the problem.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat says that the plan demonstrates that countries and regional organizations have worked together to develop a way to resolve the food security situation.

The Summit focused on sustainable local agriculture and protection of the rights of “vulnerable individuals”.

Food security was first recognized as an issue of increasing importance in August 2008 at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ meeting.  According to remarks by the Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mr. Feleti P. Teo, it was at this meeting that leaders realized that “[f]ood security is no longer simply a health issue; it is a development issue and one that is multi-sectoral in nature and must be viewed in it[s] broadest scope.”

For more information please see:
Radio Fiji – Pacific Food Summit ends – 24 April 2010

Pacific.Scoop – Opening remarks by DSG Teo at the Food Summit – Vanuatu – 22 April 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Food summit in Vanuatu focuses on sustainable agriculture – 22 April 2010