Fasting for the hungry

The United Nations chief is following a call by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization director, Jacques Diouf, who has urged people to show solidarity with the world's poor ahead of a global food summit beginning Monday in Rome.

The FAO has called the November 16-18 meeting hoping to win a clear pledge from world leaders to spend $44 billion (€29.7 million) a year to help poor countries develop self-sufficiency in food production.

Ban Ki-moon will be traveling from New York to Rome where he will be speaking at the summit.

"The secretary-general intends to join the fast over the weekend," said UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe. He will be fasting in transit, she said.

At the summit, Okabe said Ban would "highlight the human cost of the recent food, energy and economic crises" on the world's poor and underscore the link between climate change and food security.

Meanwhile, the UN's World Food Program, facing a major shortfall in funding, is launching a new drive for donations before the food summit convenes.

Josette Sheeran, head of the food aid body, said the WFP is starting an internet appeal this Saturday to get one million people in the developed world to donate just one euro ($1.48) a week to the campaign.

Sheeran said her organization was only on track to raise about half the $6.7 billion (€4.5 billion) it had targeted for the year, but that the one-euro campaign could cover the shortfall.


gb/AP/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer