Address by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Opening Ceremony of the 39th FAO Conference

Mr Chairman of the Conference,
Mr Director-General of FAO,
Madam President Bachelet

Mr President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I was very happy to accept the invitation extended to me by the Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, to participate in this 39th session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, in the year commemorating the 70th anniversary of its foundation which, as for the United Nations Organisation, took place in 1945.

Italy is honoured to have been hosting the FAO headquarters since 1951 and to play a part in fulfilling its important mission through the contribution of so many of our fellow citizens.

Today we must recognise the far-sightedness of the founders of this Organisation and the debt of gratitude that we owe them.

In fact, FAO laid the grounds for a system in which States can constructively cooperate in pursuing the goal of freeing humankind from hunger.

And this issue is evidently not unconnected to social tensions and global threats: hunger is currently the concurring or underlying cause of violence and even of wars, and combating it is a valuable act of peace.

It is a crime to transform food and water into instruments of dispute. On the contrary, they testify to the indivisibility of the destiny of humankind.

The FAO is the backbone of the international community's activity, which is inevitably becoming ever-more complex.

The right to food and water is part of a broader right to life and upholds the idea of "human security", which requires cooperation among States, sustainable development, reducing inequalities, fighting poverty, committing to combat climate change, mitigating the causes and consequences of natural disasters, protecting biodiversity.

Today, these words spell out: peace. They are the challenges of today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fifteen years ago the United Nations Millennium Declaration laid down several ambitious goals: first and foremost to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by a half, in the perspective of completely uprooting malnutrition.

I happily welcome the result that will be celebrated on Sunday, June 7, when 72 Countries will be given recognition for having achieved the goal of halving the rate of malnutrition.

It is an outstanding result that rewards all the efforts made: in 1990 the number of hungry people exceeded one billion human beings. Today, despite growing population, it has been significantly reduced.

However, there is still a very long road lying ahead. We cannot forget that 800 million people - including 160 million children under five years of age - still live in a situation of distress because of the lack of food. Or because food is insufficient to make them grow healthy and live as free individuals.

The Second International Conference on Nutrition, jointly organised by the FAO and by the World Health Organisation, which was held in Rome in November 2014, was important in that it updated the international strategy against hunger.

The Rome Declaration, which was adopted on that occasion, relaunched the commitment of Governments in favour of food security, based on the awareness that malnutrition does not only affect single individuals, and especially the most vulnerable ones like children and women, but also represents a heavy burden weighing down the socio-economic development of the Countries affected.

Inequalities, including at national level, do not need to be the price of competition and growth. On the contrary, inequalities and exclusions create social divides and slacken potential development. They have an impact precisely on the sustainability aspect of development.

In this respect, particularly significant is FAO's commitment to build around the theme of sustainable agricultural development a context that is also favourable from a social, political and legal perspective.

In order to break the vicious cycle of poverty in developing Countries, it is advisable to support the necessary interventions in the agricultural sector with considerations on the most appropriate measures of social protection, especially giving support to small farmers and their families.

In poorer rural regions, often characterised by family-run farms, we must equally support an equal distribution of land and a more direct access to market outlets for the products they produce.

Likewise, it is crucial to promote the empowerment of women, as they make an essential contribution to increasing productivity, reducing malnutrition and improving general living conditions.

However, in many cases, women are deprived access to production means and technologies; they have a harder time obtaining loans; they are discriminated in the field of education.

Defeating poverty and malnutrition is possible. It is challenging and difficult but possible.

Mankind cannot shy away from fulfilling this goal. Real peace will not be achieved as long as these disparities persist.

Nations must make solidarity prevail over selfishness.
Dialogue and cooperation can defeat fanaticism and tyranny.

Solidarity begins by tackling the consequences of natural disasters, which are made more frequent by climate change, as well as the emergencies created by instability and conflict.

The international community must be ready to effectively intervene not only through humanitarian assistance measures but also through capacity-building projects to help people prevent and tackle crises and catastrophes in the regions most at risk.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In addition to today's Conference, the second half of 2015 has an agenda of very important events: the Addis Ababa Conference on Financing for Development in July; the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September; the Paris Climate Conference in December.

The stakes are very high: it is up to our generation to shoulder the historic task of defeating hunger, it is up to the present ruling classes of the world to finally raise the "Zero Hunger" generation.

If we were to fail, we would also doom to failure the efforts of those who will come after us.

I am convinced we will succeed. But we must be aware that putting an end to poverty and hunger, protecting the environment, assuring a future to the new generations and combating social exclusion require a global strategy.

After all, inequalities and unemployment are evils affecting every Country, regardless of its level of development. They are plagues that, to a differing extent, afflict everybody.

In the same way, problems like that of the climate and the scarcity of natural resources, and of food and energy security, have fallouts on everybody, at all latitudes. The world has changed and, faced with similar challenges, the international community can no longer simply fall back on the old North-South debate.

An inter-dependent world requires that everyone take on more responsibility. Otherwise, global governance risks becoming impossible.

It is time to pool together, with intelligence and solidarity, everybody's resources, experiences and knowledge, proportionately to everyone's possibilities.

Italy, like the FAO, and supportive of the FAO, is strongly committed to contribute to drafting the post-2015 Universal Development Agenda upgrading the Millennium Goals.

I would like to thank Director-General José Graziano da Silva for his action promoting new growth objectives, to whom we intend to give our staunch support.

The horizon was indicated in the words of the UN Secretary-General: "we must put our focus on people and the planet that feeds us".

The people and the planet.
A feasible future in lieu of a resource-depleting present.

The new agenda must be based on respect for human rights and must be supported by a spirit of cooperation among governments, international organisations, private businesses and local communities.

There can be no peace in the world as long as we do not fully guarantee the right to food and water, as long as the fight against poverty is not converted into a strategy capable of removing its underlying structural causes.

We need an inclusive human development model promoting a sustainable economy and acknowledging the importance of the values of equity and equality.

Sustainability is not degrowth: sustainability, on the contrary, is the new frontier of innovation based on greater social, territorial and generational equity.
Sustainable growth is also the main way of tackling the roots of the migration emergency which now, in the Mediterranean, constitutes an unprecedented human drama.

The moral duty of saving human lives, the commitment to welcome those who cry out for help, the fight against human traffickers and ruthless criminals, must be addressed by all of Europe in laying down a strategy to strengthen cooperation with the Countries of origin and transit, with a view to favouring their economic and social growth.

Only by contributing to improve the living conditions of those who are now escaping wars, persecutions or famine, will it possible to limit the scope of an epochal problem that we will have to come to terms with for a long time. Without cooperation among Countries and Continents, any border is bound to become insecure and ultimately further fuel hatreds and fanaticisms.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The 2015 Milan Universal Exposition, for which Italy chose "Feeding the Planet. Energy for Life" as the central theme, was inaugurated slightly over a month ago.

EXPO is an opportunity offered to the citizens of all Nations, to all the governments, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, businesses, and intermediate bodies, to gain deeper insight into the challenge posed by food and sustainability.

Innovation, creativity and organisational capacity are put to the test in a comparison without borders. The "Milan Charter" was drafted as part of the Expo and was also recently discussed by the Ministers of Agriculture of numerous Countries attending today's Conference.

The "Charter" - which affirms the right to have access to healthy, sufficient and nutritious food, clean water and energy - will constitute the legacy of the Exposition, the fruit of a collective effort by governments, civil society, universities and international organisations, in the wake of the important plan laid out by the FAO over the past decades.

Underwriting the "Milan Charter" means confirming the fact that only through a concerted effort, in which everyone responsibly does his or her share, will it be possible to meet the challenge posed by malnutrition and food waste, and to promote a fair access to natural resources and the sustainable management of production processes.

In this game-changing epoch we are called upon to make truly historic decisions.
The Earth, unless we reverse the inertia shown in these recent years, may lose some of its vital functions.
Our fate cannot be taken for granted. It is up to us to determine it.

We will be judged for the peace that we will build or nullify.

I wish this Conference success, knowing that you will take an important step in the right direction.
I confide that your debate and the ensuing decisions taken will be constructive.