President Ranil Wickramasinghe has told the international community that if a sustainable debt relief plan to ensure global food security is not implemented by the end of the first quarter of 2023, the damage to the political and social structures of countries cannot be repaired.
The President has requested the President of Egypt and the Secretary General of the United Nations, who is chairing the COP27, to convene a meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of all countries to assess food needs for the next two years and submit a report.
The President stated this while participating in the round table discussion on “Food Security” at the COP-27 Conference on Climate Change, which is being held in Sham El Sheikh, Egypt, today (07).
The President emphasized the need to urgently prepare a sustainable debt relief plan to ensure global food security.
He pointed out that this sustainable debt relief plan should be prepared by February 2023 and implemented by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
The full speech delivered by President Ranil Wickramasinghe is as follows.
“There are nearly one billion people who are suffering from hunger today, and according to the IMF, over 300 million people’s livelihoods are in danger. Countries affected fall into two categories,
1. Countries where food is no longer available. These countries either have no means to buy the food due to rising costs or are unable to produce their own food.
2. Countries which traditionally had an adequate food supply but now find these sources of food out of reach due to rising costs.
There was a time when Sri Lanka had no fertilizer and was unable to produce our own food. However, the successful food security program is a combined mechanism for food security and the recently accessible fertilizer stocks that was made possible thanks to the international community. Nevertheless, there is a sizeable group who do not have the economic resources to access food.
All must ensure that food is made available to countries that fall within these two categories. Secondly, they require financial assistance to provide food for their populations.
Common to both categories is the rising levels of debt servicing. The increasing cost of debt has meant that it is more difficult for developing countries to ensure affordable food for the total population.
The IMF estimate that the food and fertilizer price shock, coupled with the rising costs of debt servicing, will add US $9bn to the food import bills of the 48 worst affected countries. This means that a resolution to the debt crisis is needed to tackle both these categories.
Currently, we are seeing that there is no overall plan to address this situation, and no focal point. The UN together with COP and the FAO, the World Food Program, the World Bank, and the IMF, must form that focal point.
I urge the Secretary-General of the UN and Egypt, as the head of the COP27, to call a meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of all countries to assess the food requirements of 2023 and 2024 and submit a report on the food position. Working together with the multilaterals, sources of funding and a sustainable debt relief plan must be formulated. It is essential that this plan is finalized by February 2023 and taken up for implementation by the end of the 1st quarter of 2023.
We must act fast; otherwise, the damage caused to the political and social structures of countries will be irreparable. At COP28, it is of utmost importance that we compile a medium-term plan to ensure global food security.”
Minister of Environment Nazeer Ahmed, Senior Adviser to the President on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardene, Director of Presidential International Affairs Dinouk Colomboge and Private Secretary to the President Sandra Perera also participated in this event.
