Statement by Prime Minister Hon Jim Marurai

Your Excellencies: Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Heads of State and Leaders, Ministers, Heads and Representatives of various Organisations and Donor Agencies, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen
Mr. Chairman, 2009 may well be recorded in the UN’s history books as: “The Year of Unheeded Pleas”. We hope not. Because never before has such an overwhelming convergence of crises been inflicted upon the developing world, as we have witnessed over the past year or so.
The crippling prices of food, fuel and transportation, which we so steadfastly resolved to battle in 2008 – more than a year ago, became saddled this year with the added weight of a global economic and financial crisis that impacted upon even the smallest of our economies.
Alarmingly, in a matter of hours, the contagion threat of Swine Flu also effortlessly crossed borders, imposing upon our strategic planning, thrusting additional costs and barriers against already struggling infrastructures, and forcibly engineering a place within our cautious mindsets.
As we near the close of 2009, it is astounding that we are still finding new ways to articulate the plight of the world’s poor and starving populations – either in words or numbers.
It’s almost as if we have become too accepting of the word “hunger” and must keep reinventing the language as a fallback position – instead of really just getting on with the job of reversing the catastrophic condition of so many lives.
We now come together with urgency again: mobilised and armed with yet further pleas for relief from disaster, and further pleas for funds and other resources to be linked to immediate action plans. Perhaps at this global forum, at this particular time, the tune of these pleas will begin to sing for the better – for the sake of those most in need.
In the Pacific Region, our own security has clearly been ‘put on notice’ by the recent spate of earthquakes and one devastating tsunami, which took many lives across three of our island nations.
And the vulnerability of Small Islands Developing States looks set to worsen over the course of the next several months as the adverse weather phenomenon ‘El Nino’ reaches across the equatorial seas.
Our fears are that this current Cyclone Season will soon be peppered by a series of threats – more intense, more frequent, and more destructive even – than the five cyclones in five weeks recorded in the waters of the Cook Islands in 2005.
Vulnerability to weather extremes continues to be shaped by the ongoing impacts of human-induced Climate Change – now topping the list of urgent pleas from our part of the developing world.
In short: Small Islands Developing States are pleading for their very survival. And we do not want these critical pleas to go unheeded.
The Cook Islands and many island nations are under enormous pressure to contend with adaptation measures – including the need for extra funds to secure food production in a changing environment.
Our budgetary commitments for agriculture development and investment have already been under fresh review and new burdens are now anticipated as we investigate the establishment of adaptive species in crop growing.
‘Security of food’ is the ‘security of a nation’ but each step we take toward improving seems to be tempered with the realisation that additional costs are not far behind – and moreover, beyond our control.
National progress may therefore continue to be slow but there are signs of steady improvement as we get smarter about maximising land usage, stimulating farmers with attractive end results in organics and healthy soils’ policies, and bringing more cohesiveness to marketing produce.
I am pleased that the FAO will continue to be a key player in the delivery of expertise where needed, and in the distribution of assistance across the national sector in cooperation with Government and other stakeholder agencies.
A resurgence of agricultural activity is a genuine need in the Cook Islands and though our initiatives may be modest, they are showing how the building must start now to revitalise broad action.
The Cook Islands joins its colleagues in the Pacific, and all Small Islands Developing States:
to help amplify these concerted calls for action at this World Summit,
to help support Director-General Jacques Diouf in engaging the necessary partnerships, and
to help the FAO reignite fresh ideas and energy to drive the flow of benefits to where it is required most.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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