Bono of U2 fame is in Milan, Italy,
urging world leaders to pay more attention to poverty and hunger.
Ertharin Cousin, executive director of
the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), thanked him and Italian Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi and Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney for
their efforts to give voice and support to the world’s hungry poor.
Bono and Cousin met on Sunday night at
the Expo Milan 2015 special event “It Begins With Me,” hosted by the
governments of Ireland and Italy, to mobilize people in the challenge to end
hunger in our lifetimes and raise awareness of the need for more resources to
respond to the increasing hunger needs of people fleeing conflict.
“To end hunger we count on public
will.
“People must raise their voices to
demand a world without hunger. This is why I am so pleased that Bono has come
here to Expo to make this happen in what is a very difficult moment,” said Cousin.
The agency has having difficulty
getting enough money for the Syrian emergency response.
“I think it is extraordinary that
an organization like WFP even exists when each year you and your staff have to
go out and ask for funds to do your work,” said Bono.
“In Jordan right now we have a refugee
crisis and … WFP is forced to cut for lack of funds,” said Bono. “This is
shameful!”
In his opening remarks, Irish
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, one of the driving forces behind the event,
announced that Ireland will donate 60 million euros to WFP over three years,
with a specific focus on refugees.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi promised
that by 2017 Italy would be back in fourth place in the country ranking for
international cooperation among the G7 countries.
Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio
Martina said that we need both citizens and institutions to support the fight
against hunger and Expo is the ideal venue to put fighting hunger at the top of
the agenda.
Nothing was heard from Canada.
The WFP is the world's largest
humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food in emergencies
and working with communities to build resilience.
Each year, WFP assists some 80
million people in about 80 countries.
