CAIRO: Dr. Ismael Abu Zeid, Coordinator of the Middle East and North Africa Program's International Food Day, has announced that Egypt is not one of the world's hungriest nations, but, at the same time, the country is suffering from poverty. This poverty has left the country struggling to find new means to create new projects that will counter this growing problem. In a press conference held yesterday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announcing the launch of joint website of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) with the FAO to fight against hunger, Abu Zeid said that the World Food Program is currently implementing more than 52 projects in Egypt to alleviate poverty among low income groups, especially in Upper Egypt. Abu Zeid pointed out that there is also a joint project currently being implemented with the Ministries of Social Solidarity and Education to improve the quality of the meals in schools, to reduce school dropout rates and contribute to solving the problem of malnutrition. The UN official stressed that the rich countries which provide food for developing countries, frequently impose arbitrary conditions, leading to a shortage in supply of food commodities in the international market and, hence, the deterioration of the food situation in poor countries. He emphasized the need for political will in rich countries together with the availability of this “will” in the poor countries or developing countries would help bring about real and viable change. “We want to see major changes and this initiative will help direct us to that end,” said Mohamed Nassar, a ministry official. Abu Zeid said that there are more than 20 thousand children who die every day from hunger and lack of food, despite the fact that world cereal production is up to 2300 million tons, meeting the global needs for consumption and even exceeding demand by 140 million tons. He pointed out that international organizations' search for practical solutions to these problems is particularly pressing in light of the high numbers at risk of starvation. Over a billion people around the world are currently at risk of starvation, up from 863 million since the campaign against hunger started in 1997. There is a current global target to half that number by 2015. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
