Thank you very much for the invitation to speak here today. It’s a privilege to be asked to take part in WFP’s global meeting this year, when the Programme has been so much in the front line - and in the headlines - over the past 12 months. I think WFP has commanded tremendous admiration and respect as it has achieved so much, on so many fronts, during the global food price crisis: -in the large increase since 2006 in the number of people receiving help from the Programme, -in the way WFP has mobilised additional financial resources from non-traditional donors, -and in the way it’s really set the global agenda on the issue. So it’s with humility - and a certain amount of trepidation - that I join you here this morning. In the next 20 minutes, I’m going to skip over the reasons why food prices have emerged as such a major issue, as I think we’re all by now familiar with the list – and instead focus on what lies ahead. In particular, I want to look at three inter-linked questions:

1 What does the crisis currently engulfing world financial markets mean for us?

2 Second, in the medium and longer term, are the food price rises we’ve seen over the last few years just a temporary blip, or the beginning of a new normality?

3 And third, what does all of this mean for humanitarian assistance and the work of the World Food Programme?