The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh calls for immediate global action to address three major global challenges - food crisis, increased oil price and climate change.

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ismat Jahan, made this call while speaking on behalf of the least developed countries at the high level segment of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York Wednesday. Ambassador Jahan said that the price of food grains had surged to its record high, affecting the LDCs most disproportionately. "In the LDCs where poor households spend nearly 70% of their income on food items, a sharp increase in food price was bound to have strong adverse impact on the incidence of poverty and human development", she said.

She expressed deep concern that at a time when the poor countries had expected increased global support, food market had become further distorted. "Many food exporting countries had adopted restrictive measures through both tariff and non tariff barriers", she added. Ismat Jahan urged strategization of the global response to the food crisis through a coherent and multi-pronged approach, addressing short, medium and long-term needs, said a press release received here today.

In the immediate short run, she urged removal of the supply side constraints and to ensure adequate food supply. She underlined the need for providing targeted cash transfers and other direct support measures to vulnerable groups.