I am pleased to welcome you to the United Nations for this first meeting of your contact g
roup.
Your focus on food security in Africa comes at a crucial time. The latest food crisis on the continent has brought home to us, more than ever before, the urgent need for a strategy to break the pattern of recurrent crises and bring about a Green Revolution in Africa. But achieving this will require radical approaches on multiple fronts.
Africa has faced food crises in the past; it has faced deadly diseases; it has struggled to come to terms with governance challenges in states with limited capacity and resources.
But rarely has the continent had to face the kind of intersecting challenges we see today. Today, Africa faces a deadly triad of related burdens -- food insecurity, HIV/AIDS and an emaciated capacity to govern and provide services.
We cannot find viable solutions to the challenge of food security unless we address the challenges of AIDS and governance at the same time.
Food insecurity in Africa has structural causes. Most African farmers farm small plots of land that do not produce enough to meet the needs of their families. The problem is compounded by the farmers' lack of bargaining power and lack of access to land, finance and technology.
This further weakens farmers' ability to withstand the impact of recurrent drought and the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Thirty million Africans now live with HIV, and the continent has borne the brunt of more than 20 million AIDS deaths worldwide. In some areas of Africa, more than 40 percent of the population is HIV-positive, and similar proportions are going hungry.
The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on food production -- with seven million African farmers already dead -- is only too obvious. Infection rates are rising among African women. The latest figures show that women make up 58 percent of Africans already infected.
Because of AIDS, skills and knowledge are dying out rather than being passed from one generation to the next. Both at the household level and the government level, resources are being diverted from food production to health care. In turn, food shortages fuel the disease, through malnutrition, poverty and inequality.
Clearly, breaking this destructive cycle poses a huge challenge to governance. It will require strong institutions, improved skills and innovative policies. But in an irony so typical of the age of AIDS, Africa's ability to govern and to provide services is itself being stretched to breaking point by the disease.
This interlocking set of issues facing Africa is far greater than the sum of its parts. Ad-dressing the issue I have raised requires a new, integrated response from both the Governments of Africa and the international community. It requires a shift from short-term approaches to a reassessment of our entire strategy for development -- or, taking long-term measures even when addressing short-term emergencies. Ladies and gentlemen,
The United Nations family is already joining forces to mount the coordinated effort needed. I hope you will work across the board with us, and with the Governments of Africa, in developing the range of revolutionary approaches we need to tackle the deadly triad and break the pattern of food crises in Africa.
I opened my remarks with a message of despair; let me close with one hope. Yes, this is an unprecedented set of challenges. But your presence here today tells me that we have unprecedented consensus on the need to confront them. Together, we must mobilize the political will to succeed.
Thank you very much.
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