FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf on hunger strike (Photo Courtesy FAO/Giulio Napolitano)

Pope Benedict XVI has said that solidarity with poor countries and involvement of local communities is required to promote sustainable agricultural development.

According to Caritas, the Pope was addressing The World Food Summit in Rome where he also said that the right to food has an important place within the pursuit of the universal rights of all human beings, beginning with the fundamental right to life.

The Catholic humanitarian agencies CIDSE and Caritas expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the declaration already issued on day 1 of the Summit in Rome saying that the World Food Summit has failed to produce a concrete agenda for moving away from business as usual, even as the number of hungry in the world continues to rise.

"Holding a Global Summit on Food Security now was extremely important to keep the political and public spotlight on the issue of spiralling world hunger. But the outcome Declaration has brought nothing concrete, and many of its statements are open to wide and often concerning interpretations," said Alicia Kolmans, from CIDSE.

"The declaration reaffirms the need to invest in small-scale agriculture, but there are no concrete proposals how this should best be done, nor have leaders committed to mobilising the necessary financial commitments within the next five years", Bob van Dillen from Cordaid, the Dutch member of the Caritas and CIDSE networks said.

Michael O' Brien from Trocaire, the Irish member of the CIDSE and Caritas networks, noted that there is a clear consensus amongst all these stakeholders that the liberalisation agenda promoted over the last decades by the World Bank and other actors has categorically failed.

He said that there is a real need to strengthen farmer's involvement in policy making and implementation.

"If the international community is serious about investing in small-scale agriculture in developing countries to deliver food security and poverty reduction, it must commit to working with agencies and actors that have a history and capacity to work with small-scale farmers', said Ambroise Mazal of CCFD, CIDSE's French member organisation.

The governments have also been called to invest together in the Committee on Food Security to ensure it produces real policy change and to see that these policies are adhered to.