But the lack of attendance by all G8 country leaders – except Italy, where the three-day summit was held – did not bode well for increasing investment, donations and food aid to where they are needed most.

“I would have liked all countries to be represented by their heads of state or government,” Diouf said, as cameras flashed and reporters scribbled notes, held up microphones and sent text messages. “The funding of agriculture isn’t decided by ministries of agriculture.”

Diouf also expressed frustration that the summit declaration, the product of several round-table discussions and meetings attended by 60 heads of state and more than 2,000 delegates, did not list specific target dates or financial sums for dealing with the increasing number of hungry people in the world.

The declaration did reaffirm the delegates’ commitment to the already-agreed-upon Millenium Development Goal of halving the world’s hungry population by 2015.

International humanitarian organizations Oxfam and ActionAid were quick to release statements condemning the lack of commitment or substantial accomplishments achieved during the summit.

“The World Food Summit failed to make any major breakthroughs. And the G8 leaders didn’t even bother turning up,” said Adriana Campolina, ActionAid regional director for Latin America. “Warm words don’t fill empty stomachs.”

Alternating between French and English during the final press conference, Diouf stressed the importance of looking at long-term structural factors when dealing with food insecurity. Some of the factors included foreign direct investment, technology and climate change.

The summit declaration also called for more attention to climate change, requesting that countries “proactively….increase the resilience of agricultural producers to climate change, with particular attention to small agricultural producers and vulnerable populations.”

Diouf called Sub-Saharan Africa a challenge and said that it was a “great human tragedy” that this region housed the largest percentage of hungry people in the world.

Climate change, he said, made it even more difficult to find solutions to food insecurity, specifically noting the drought in the Horn of Africa and its effect on Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and other countries.

When asked what aspect of food insecurity he would want to focus on in Africa, Diouf chose water as a top priority. He called increasing small-scale irrigation projects, controlling water-sheds and freeing up funds for water projects vital to the future of agriculture on the continent.

In conclusion, Diouf appealed to the media to make “an important effort” to bring attention to the more than 1 billion hungry members of the population, warning that otherwise, the world may “forget completely.”

Day 3, 5:28 p.m.: While there were plenty of critics who called the U.N. World Summit on Food Security fruitless, not everyone felt the conference was a failure, as some have described it.

We had the privilege of sharing a press table with Fath el-Rahman al-Gadi, a Sudanese journalist who, after filing his own reports for the newspaper he represented, shared his thoughts with me on the conference.

After one of my colleagues showed him our site and helped him with a minor computer glitch, I asked him for his initial thoughts. He said the efforts by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, and private and civil society organizations set a “new trend in humanity” for fighting hunger.

Al-Gadi said he had one disappointment, however. Although delegates from 192 countries were represented at the conference, he said, only one country from the Group of Eight–Italy, the host country–was present.

“We felt sorry for that,” he said, “because we would have liked to witness the active presence of the European countries as well as the U.S. of A.”

“With south-to-north collaborations we can build a future,” he added. “Of course, the rich countries can make a significant contribution through funding and through the transferring of technology know-how. But I hope that in the future this trend of absenteeism will no longer exist.”

I also asked al-Gadi to describe what he felt was the most important food security story in Sudan right now. At the moment, he said, the focus is on the country’s rich natural resources, especially those related to land, water and soil. With these resources, he said, Sudan has the potential to compete in world markets provided that the projects concerning food insecurity are sponsored by collaborative efforts between Sudan and the international communities.

Check back later for more updates from Shalwah and Alexia on the final moments of the conference.

–Martin Ricard

3:10 p.m

Beyond the police barricades and legions of international security officers, a group of more than 30 representatives of the People’s Food Sovereignty Forum gathered.  Many were in national dress, hoisting signs, flags and speaking with members of the media.

Their message: In an age where agrobusiness corporations tend to dominate the conversation, remember the small farmer.

The People’s Forum, which is happening at the same time as the World Food Security Summit in Rome, is a civil society conference made up of farmers, indigenous people, women, youth and international non-governmental organizations.

“Small food producers are the solution to the food crisis,” their website proclaims. “With local agriculture and local markets we can cool the planet.”

While police watched from several feet away, representatives spoke in Italian, French, Spanish and English about the importance of small-scale agricultural solutions.

Some of their demands included equal access to land and water for indigenous people, banning genetically modified food, and allowing local populations to decide how land is used and food is produced.

Representatives of individual NGOs also spoke up for their causes.  Abla Mahdi Abdel Moniem of Sudan talked about stopping Israel from uprooting trees on Palestinian land.  One man from the Philippines silently stood in front of the cameras, holding a sign explaining that he was on a hunger strike.  “No to Large Scale Mining, Yes to Food Security,” it read.

“We have great hope that our governments may be able to press upon FAO so that they can really implement the concept of food sovereignty,” said Aichatori Sami, a representative of the organization Plate Forme P, in Niger.

–Alexia Underwood

12:50 p.m.: Pope Benedict just finished addressing the summit. Dressed in a white cassock, the pope spoke about the importance of balancing social responsibility and cooperation in addressing hunger.

He said the problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed with a long-term process that sorts out issues relating to subsidies and eliminates greed so that food is placed on “equal footing just as any other commodity.”

He also implored leaders to redefine the principles governing international relations on food security. He said the response should not be beholden to corporations but rather to the “members of the worldwide human family.”

“If the aim is to eliminate hunger, we need to promote balance and economic growth,” he said, “but also secure new parameters … which are capable of inspiring the cooperation required to create parity between different states in development.”

He also spoke about the importance of addressing climate change in eliminating hunger. He said countries and international organizations have a “moral duty” to protect the environment as a shared goal.

“It is important to remember that the destruction of a nation is connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence,” the pope said.

–Martin Ricard

Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization addresses the summit.

10 a.m.: The United Nations World Summit on Food Security began in Rome this morning. Sirens could be heard throughout the city as delegates and ambassadors made their way to the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters.

The Honorable Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO, addressed his colleagues in a passionate speech that focused on “putting food security at the top of the global agenda.”

Diouf, who called for a day of fasting last week, spoke about food quality and safety standards.  He also thanked the European Union and World Food Program for participation in past programs that helped provide poor farmers in developing countries with otherwise costly seeds and inputs.

The summit will continue through Wednesday, allowing representatives from various countries to address their colleagues. Delegates from Africa include Kgalema Motlanthe, deputy president of South Africa, Fidelia Akuabata Njeze, minister of state for agriculture and water resources of Nigeria, and Jean Ping, president of the Africa Union.

–Shalwah Evans