Liberian President speaks about the Pope's powerful voice on poverty

(Vatican Radio) Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state is in Rome for a series of meetings which include an audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday.

The Nobel Prize winner is also Co-Chair of the High –level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which is the successor framework to the Millenium Development goals.

At a press conference held at the Headquarters of the World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday to unveil Food Security and nutrition targets for the Post 2015 agenda, the President told Vatican Radio that Pope Francis’ comments on the issue of poverty are powerful.

“The words of the Holy Father are going to reverberate, the examples he sets are going to be so inspiring, certainly what he says about addressing poverty is very consistent with the agenda but he brings to it this powerful force and so I’m going to be listening to him and taking back every word that he says to be able to help to inspire me to do more in that area.”

The three Rome based UN food and agriculture agencies, WFP, IFAD and FAO stressed that feeding the world was a global issue and that food security was achievable. Speaking about the issue of food security in her own country, the President said improvements had been made but more needs to be done.

“Liberia has improved its food insecurity, it went from 43 per cent to 38 per cent, … but still food insecure. The progress is there but it’s not sufficient, we still have hunger in many of our rural areas.”

President Sirleaf also highlighted the fact the priority of the post -2015 development agenda is not just the reduction but the eradication of poverty in all its forms and there was a general consensus that although aspects of the Millenium Development Goals had been successful, much work still needs to be done to improve the lives of 840 million people who remain chronically hungry. Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report