Madrid - In spite of the "unprecedented" effort launched last year to respond to the food crisis, greater efforts were needed to feed the hungry as the world faces an economic slowdown.
"Much good work", including bolstered national food security programmes, increased donor assistance and international cooperation, was done in 2008, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Food Security for All meeting in Madrid, which he co-chaired with Spanish Prime Minister Jos, Luis Rodr¡guez Zapatero.
"As food prices rose and brought the number of hungry people close to one billion, we achieved the largest emergency scale-up against hunger and malnutrition in human history," he said, at the close of the two-day meeting on Tuesday.
Although food prices have fallen for the short-term, the Secretary-General cautioned that the global recession could push more people into hunger.
"We must do better in 2009," he stressed, adding that "we must build on what was done last year, sustain our successes and scale up our responses, especially as the financial crisis compounds the impact of the food crisis."
In addition to the twin-track approach of providing food and nutrition aid along with boosting food production, Mr Ban called for a new element - the right to food - to be added to fighting food insecurity.
He and Mr Zapatero underscored the need for a "comprehensive approach that links nutrition, food security, agriculture and trade" to address the food crisis.
"It depends on inclusive, broad-based partnerships bringing together governments, civil society, farmers' organizations, businesses and international organizations," they said in a joint statement issued at the end of the Madrid gathering.
Also at the conclusion of the meeting, participants called for social protection systems and the elimination of competition-distorting subsidies as a means to spur fair agricultural trade.
They also "supported the importance of including marginalized and excluded men, women and children and indigenous groups in this process, giving them voice so that their views are prioritized when analyzing the problems, searching for viable solutions and implementing them."
The event in Spain is a follow-up to last June's High-level Conference on World Food Security in Rome which was hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The meeting was attended by participants from 126 nations, including 62 government ministers, as well as civil society groups, trade unions and others.
On Wednesday, Mr Ban is to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he will hold a series of bilateral meetings with world leaders and chief business executives, and deliver remarks on subjects ranging from climate change and water scarcity to the global financial crisis.
He plans to call for a new chapter in corporate engagement on these critical issues, and is also scheduled hold a press conference on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally agreed upon targets to eradicate poverty and other social ills by the target date of 2015, as well as participate in a special session on Gaza.
