Ban Ki-Moon to Chair UN Task Force on Food Crisis

by Dave Keating | April 29, 2008 at 01:10 am

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The head of the UN has held a joint press conference with the head of teh World Bank to discuss how the two organisations are going to deal with the food crisis. So far Moon has been criticized for not doing enough to draw attention to the problem.

United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon said he will chair a new UN task force to tackle thecrisis provoked by soaring food prices.

The food crisis is an ``unprecedented challenge'' that has``multiple effects on the most vulnerable,'' Ban told a pressconference in the Swiss capital Bern today. ``We must feed thehungry,'' and ``full funding'' is needed, he said.

The task force will bring together the heads of UNspecialized agencies, funds and programs, the InternationalMonetary Fund, the World Bank and the UN Secretariat, he said.Ban is attending a two-day meeting with the key UN developmentagencies that ends today.

Rising food prices are creating the biggest challenge theUN World Food Program has faced in its 45-year history,``threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on everycontinent into hunger,'' the agency said on April 22. Globalfood prices surged 57 percent last month from a year earlier,according to the UN, and the World Bank warns civil disturbancesmay be triggered by rising food prices in 33 countries.