19 October 2001 - NEW YORK
- United Nations World Food Programme Executive Director Catherine Bertini
announced today the appointment of former US Senator George McGovern as
the agency's first Global Ambassador on Hunger.
In the new role, McGovern will act as the agency's world-wide advocate
on hunger issues and promote programs focused on poor children and mothers
as ways to eradicate long-term hunger and poverty.
"We are honored that Ambassador McGovern has agreed to continue his fight
against hunger, through a renewed affiliation with WFP," said Bertini.
"As a WFP founder and a longtime supporter, he is ideally placed to help
ensure that hunger remains at the top of the humanitarian agenda."
A child of the Great Depression and a decorated WWII veteran who was witness
to widespread hunger and poverty in war-torn Europe, McGovern has devoted
his life to furthering the cause of the hungry poor in the United States
and around the world.
As the first director of the US Food for Peace Program appointed by President
John F. Kennedy in 1961, he was instrumental in founding WFP. Forty years
later, the organisation has become the largest humanitarian aid agency
in the world. It provides life-saving food aid to millions every year
in both emergency and development projects.
McGovern served in the US Senate in 1962, was re-elected in 1968 and once
again in 1974. He ran for the US presidency on the Democratic Party ticket
in 1972.
Over the past 25 years, he has held appointments to several UN posts.
Last month, he finished three and one half years as the US representative
to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, Italy.
During his tenure in the Senate, McGovern was at the helm of creating
and promoting key government nutrition programs. Together with Republican
Senator Bob Dole, he sponsored joint legislation in the early 1970s that
ensured a nutritious meal each day at school for poor American children.
This year, the two former Senators partnered again to support a similar
program, this time on a global scale, to promote the concept that every
child in the world has lunch at school. Currently pending in the US Congress
is the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and
Child Nutrition Act of 2001, which would commit an annual amount from
the US federal budget to provide nutritious meals to poor students around
the world.
McGovern is also the author of a book on how to fight global hunger. Published
last Spring, Ending World Hunger in Our Time lays out a strategy to end
world hunger by focusing on programs that feed and educate poor children.
Bertini estimates there are some 300 million undernourished children in
the world today. Some are forced to learn on empty stomachs because they
receive no food at school while others don't attend class at all. Over
sixty percent of these children are girls.
"A global school feeding programme
for the world's undernourished children is a simple but effective way
to decrease malnutrition and help poor children get an educated start
in life," she said. "George McGovern is convinced of that and he understands
how to prompt people to action."
WFP, which is the largest provider of school meals and take-home rations
to children in the developing world, has expanded its current feeding
activities and seeks further support from the international community.
The agency currently provides meals to more than 12 million school children
in 54 countries.
"I can't think of anyone better than George McGovern to serve as our first
ambassador," Bertini said. "And at a time like this, when it's more important
than ever we find long term ways to solve world hunger, I'm proud he'll
be at our side."
* *
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| The
WFP is the United Nations front-line agency in the fight against
global hunger. In 2000, the WFP fed more than 83 million people
in 83 countries including most of the world's refugees and internally
displaced people. |
For more
information, please contact:
Abby
Spring
Public Information Officer
WFP New York
Tel. +1-917-9635196
Sara
Piepmeier
Public Affairs Officer
WFP/Chicago,
Tel. +1-847-864-3665
Jeff
Rowland
Public Affairs Officer
WFP/Rome
Tel. +39-06-6513-2971
Christiane Berthiaume
Public Information Officer
WFP Geneva
Tel.+41-22-9178564
|