Prioritizing Local Food Security: Can We Halve Global Hunger By 2015?

The need to help the world’s impoverished populations has long been a priority of the United Nations and a focus of world summits. Recognizing that a more aggressive stance is needed to address poverty in all its forms, the United Nations adopted a plan to make marked improvements in people’s lives, committing to halve hunger and poverty by 2015. Formally titled the Millennium Development Goals, the plan consists of eight objectives:

• eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• achieve universal primary education;
• promote gender equality and empower women;
• reduce child mortality;
• improve maternal health;
• combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
• ensure environmental sustainability;
• and develop a global partnership for development.
  
  

New Publication: Millennium Development Goals Review 2008

Prioritizing Local Food Security:
Can We Halve Global Hunger By 2015?

"The state of global food security—that measure of whether people can feed themselves—has hardly improved since the 1996 World Food Summit when governments committed themselves to halving extreme hunger and poverty by 2015. In fact, the number of people facing hunger and poverty in Africa in particular has increased dramatically."

UN Summit: MDG Review

On September 23, 2008, a high level meeting took place at the UN headquarters in New York to renew commitments to achieving these goals. At this General Assembly, the 2008 publication of the Millennium Goals Review was presented. This publication is intended to report progress, success stories, shortfalls, and improvements made by the world community. Action Against Hunger’s Food Security Advisors Devrig Velly and Silke Pietzsch contributed to the Review.

Additional MDG Resources:

Millennium Development Project

The UNDP’s Millennium Development Goals