merrion street

Shane McEntee, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine spoke today at the launch of the 2012 Global Hunger Index report entitled

The launch was co-hosted by Concern and AWEPA- the Association of Parliamentarians for Africa.

The 2012 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report—the seventh in an annual series—presents a multidimensional measure of global, regional, and national hunger. It shows that although the proportion of hungry people around the world has declined since 1990, global hunger remains at a level characterized as ‘serious’. In his address the Minister referred to the work carried out by the Irish government in the fight against hunger.

"Last year, in addition to the ongoing programmes funded by Irish Aid, my Department provided almost 8.5 million euro to the World Food Programme for emergency actions and for protracted relief and recovery. We recognise the need to deal with emergencies as they occur and the special funding we provided to Haiti at the beginning of last year shows our commitment to this cause".

The Minister concluded by referring to the guidelines agreed by the FAO’s Committee on Food Security last May, aimed at helping governments to safeguard the rights of people to own or access land, stating "the FAO’s Committee on Food Security serves as a mechanism for consensus-building at international level and policy promotion at national level. Ireland supports this approach and will continue to play its part in ensuring sustainable food security".

Note for Editors

The 2012 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report—the seventh in an annual series—presents a multidimensional measure of global, regional, and national hunger. It shows that although the proportion of hungry people around the world has declined since 1990, global hunger remains at a level characterized as ‘serious’. Data on these indicators come from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), various national demographic and health surveys, and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) estimates.