Thank you for the opportunity for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to contribute to this important debate.

While the doubling in global food prices requires an urgent response from the international community, at the same time we also have to look beyond the short-term aspects of the issue.

First of all, the factors driving this price hike are not about to disappear.

Population pressures and domestic demands in emerging economies will continue to increase. Climate change will further accelerate in the coming years, with a growing risk of failing harvests and more people in need of food aid. Increasing demand will continue to outstrip failing supply.

Secondly, despite the fact that the international community committed itself to drastically cut food insecurity through the Millennium Development Goals, malnutrition has continued to rise in Africa and elsewhere, fuelled by the combined effects of poverty, climate change, HIV/AIDS, conflict and increased population growth.

This clearly illustrates the immediacy of the need to muster an effective global response, addressing also the longer-term aspects of food security.

Policies promoting bio-fuel need to be revisited, trade agreements reviewed and better food banks established.

However, these macro-level interventions have to be integrated with actions at the local, micro-level.

In this context, it is also important to draw attentions to the concerns of our colleagues in the International Committee of the Red Cross. The fact that conflict and insecurity may also lie at the roots of the food crisis has potential in its consequences to effect a further spiraling of insecurity, instability, and conflict. And if the current crisis continues to deteriorate, the situation of the most vulnerable, and, for example, people in detention, will be greatly aggravated.

Mr. President, the IFRC represents a network of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in almost every country in the world. Their trained volunteers help equip communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from, disasters.

Communities are, therefore, our part of us as well as our natural partners.

Governments are also our partners since National Societies are auxiliaries to their governments in humanitarian matters, albeit as independent entities in their own right.

Beyond ongoing emergency interventions, last month, the IFRC launched a new five year food security plan for Africa. With an initial budget of 43.5 million USD, 80 per cent of which will be spent on direct, integrated country-level programming, benefiting some 2.25 million people (or around half a million families).

This initiative will enable 15 priority Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Africa to develop the capacity, skills and resources they need to have a positive, lasting impact on food security by reaching at least 20 per cent of the most vulnerable people in their communities with long-term food security solutions.

These include like microfinance, small-scale irrigation schemes and community-based food security monitoring systems, thereby improving their ability to cope with shocks like drought, for example.

Mr. President, it is tragic that so many millions of people are going hungry, yet it is encouraging that food security is now high on the international agenda.

Now is the time for governments, but also the UN, NGOs and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to come together and build a comprehensive and sustainable solution.

Rest assured, we are committed to doing our utmost to contribute to this.