ARTICLE - MARTELLY SPEECH AT RIO+20

MARTELLY SPEECH AT RIO+20
(Haiti Libre) -

President Michel Martelly, is currently participating from June 20 to 22, 2012, at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil. In his speech at this international forum the Head of State declared that: "The whole world looks once more on the fate of the earth for a renewed political commitment in favor of sustainable development around two themes of magnitude, which are on the one hand a green economy in a perceptual eradication of poverty, and the reviewing of the architecture of the institutional framework for sustainable development." While discussing the situation in Haiti the Head of State acknowledged that "this summit gives me more questions than it solves. How to speak of a sustainable development with the demographic realities, of survival and a State institutionally weak to reconstruct; as is the situation of my country? I think that Rio+20 puts at the heart of the debate the question of inequality, which clashes with the ideals of justice and solidarity, threatening the economic and social stability and makes the most disadvantaged strata more vulnerable to shocks, particularly the environmental stress..."

At Rio +20, the President also joined the World Food Programme (WFP) and FAO to announce the expansion of school feeding programs and also the prevention of chronic and acute malnutrition, while providing support to Haitian farmers to improve their market access.

"Our message during the Rio +20 conference is that there is no real sustainable development as food insecurity threatens populations. Before arriving to Rio, I visited Haiti and saw with my own eyes how the succession of emergencies and high food prices preventing the country from reaching its true potential, "said Ms. Ertharin Cousin, the Executive Director of WFP. The expansion of operations to strengthen the resilience of populations, including school feeding programs and nutrition, is essential for a truly sustainable development in a country like Haiti."

"This kind of program is among those that Haiti needs to achieve sustainable development and in the long-term, in order to achieve our objective of eradicating hunger by 2025," declared President Martelly. "We particularly appreciate the efforts of WFP, which helps us to make of this objective a reality."

In Haiti, WFP is currently implementing nutrition programs, Cash for Work in order to improve irrigation infrastructure, and protection against flooding, and provides daily hot meals to 1.1 million children in the country by ensuring that more food is purchased locally from Haitians farmers. As an example of the way to follow, Ms. Cousin underlined the pilot project "Lèt Agogo" (milk) which, thanks to support from the Brazilian government and the support of partners such as FAO allows WFP ​​to purchase sterilized milk from 13 dairies in Haiti. The milk is distributed to over 20,000 children in about sixty schools supported by the National School Feeding Programme (PNCS).

The Executive Director also urged the international community to provide a long-term support to the initiatives strengthening the resilience of Haiti. "We need funding commitments over several years helping to build sustainable systems, that lead to stable results in the areas of nutrition and education and increase income levels in rural areas," declared Ms. Cousin.