| Overview of the World Food Situation - New IFPRI report urges action in the fight against poverty and hunger
 “The world is making slow progress in reducing hunger,” said Joachim von Braun, Director General of IFPRI, while launching a new report, The World Food Situation: An Overview. “During the 1990s, developing countries decreased the number of undernourished people by 9 million, a drop of only one percent. Additionally, deficiencies in vitamin A, iron and other essential micronutrients continue to pose a vast public health problem.”
While China was successful in making major strides against hunger during this period, the rest of the developing world suffered from increased undernutrition. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly dire, with the number of hungry people increasing by 20 percent since 1990.
The presentation highlighted key developments that have emerged, both negative and positive:
- Hunger has been exacerbated over the past year by several natural disasters (such as the tsunami and the South Asia earthquake) and man-made causes (such as the conflict in Darfur and the failure to respond to the famine in Niger in a timely fashion)
- Large developing countries, especially Brazil, China and India increased investments in poverty reduction in 2005
- At the Group of Eight Summit, leaders agreed to double aid for Africa by $25 billion by 2010 and cancel 100 percent of the multilateral debts of the highly indebted poor countries.
With the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), poverty has climbed to the top of the global development agenda. However, IFPRI research shows that if current trends continue, the world will not come close to reaching the target for cutting hunger in half. We must do more.
The MDG targets could be achieved with additional investments and changes in policies. Cutting hunger and poverty in half would require four overall steps:
- Strengthening governance of the food and agriculture system and translating new initiatives into action on the ground
- Scaling-up public investment for agriculture and rural growth
- Taking targeted steps to improve nutrition and health, and
- Creating an effective global system for preventing and mitigating disasters
Ultimately we cannot be satisfied merely to cut hunger in half – we must think beyond these goals,” he urged. Different policies will be needed to end hunger altogether, requiring innovative approaches and paradigm shifts. Policies and programs will need to focus on the poorest countries and the poorest people; they will need access to new technologies, as well as access to insurance and safety net programs. We will need a stronger focus on gender issues. The natural resource base will need to be preserved.
“We must push ourselves not just to cut hunger in half, but to eradicate it completely,” concluded von Braun.
Joachim von Braun presentation:
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