The Millennium Summit took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 6 to 8 September 2000. This summit was a result of the United Nations General Assembly’s resolution 53/202 adopted on 17 December 1998 by which it decided to call together the Millennium Summit of the United Nations. The summit adopted the Millennium Declaration, which actions and targets are listed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There are altogether eight goals to be achieved by the year 2015. The goals range from reducing child mortality to achieving universal primary education but they all form an universal set of believes, simple but powerful objectives that are agreed by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading developing institutions and could be understood and supported by everyone. But at the same time these goals are different in their nature and distinguish from all the previously adopted goals in four ways, as the Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan has pointed out. First, the Millennium Development Goals are people-centered, time-bound and measurable. Second, they are based on a global partnership, stressing the responsibilities of developing countries for getting their own house in order, and of developed countries for supporting those efforts. Third, they have unprecedented political support, embraced at the highest levels by developed and developing countries, civil society and major development institutions alike. Fourth, they are achievable.
One of the eight goals is directly linked to the subject of the state of food insecurity in the world. It is the Millennium Development Goal no.1: eradication of poverty and hunger. This is said to be the most important goal as it is the essential condition for achieving the other MDGs. The other goals are: to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development. The positive consequences of all the other goals depend on the capability of fulfilling the objectives set in the goal no.1. These objectives are to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one US dollar a day and to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. For example the purpose of the goal no.2 is to achieve universal primary education, to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. But when the objectives of the goal no.1 have not been obtained, when there are still shortages in eradication of poverty and hunger, difficulties occur in achieving the goal no.2. Because hunger reduces school attendance and effects learning capacity and the lack of education in return reduces earning capacity and increases the risk of hunger.
The current situation in the world’s food insecurity questions is revealed in the report “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005”, which is prepared as a collaborative effort within the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations led by the Economic and Social Department. “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005” examines progress towards the World Food Summit goals and the Millennium Development Goals, focusing on the critical importance of reducing hunger, not only as the explicit target of MDG 1 but as an essential condition for reaching the other MDGs. The report is divided into two major parts. The first part tackles the long-term trends in reducing food insecurity and discusses the impact of economic growth, governance and natural disasters. The second part of the report analyses separately every MDG and concludes that hunger is the main reason that hinders development and by the reduction of hunger development processes in different fields could be accelerated.
The first section of the report reveals that on the regional level the progress towards the MDG targets and WFS goals is uneven. For example among developing regions, only Latin America and the Caribbean has been reducing the prevalence of hunger quickly enough since 1990 to reach the MDG target by maintaining its current pace. In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of undernourishment has been decreasing very slowly, although the speed of progress improved in the 1990s. The region will need to step up the pace dramatically to reach the MDG target. Further information about the other regions in the world is provided in the table 1. Changes in the progress towards achieving the MDG targets at the national level are illustrated by the ratio of the prevalence of hunger in 2000–02 to the prevalence in the baseline period, 1990–92 seen in table 2.
Mutual relation between economic growth and hunger reduction is also analyzed in the firs part of the report. Stabile economic growth increases productivity and prosperity at the national level and reduces hunger. According to this statement it would be very tempting to reach the conclusion that in order to reach the targets of MDGs and the WFS, countries only need to accelerate economic growth. But however how tempting it may seem according to this report economic growth is important but not sufficient enough to reduce hunger and that growth in the agriculture sector of developing countries has a much greater impact in reducing hunger than do urban and industrial growth. An FAO study found that it takes longer for economic growth to have an impact on hunger reduction than for improved nutrition to stimulate economic growth.
The first part of the report also discusses the role of governance in hunger reduction. Poverty and undernourishment indicators have fallen significantly faster and farther in places where the political situation is stable, corruption is rare and farm productivity and literacy rates are high. Many of these favorable initial conditions can be regarded as indicators of what is often called “good governance”. The impact of good governance on reducing food insecurity can be seen in several countries. In India, for example, the Supreme Court mandated cooked lunches in all of the country’s schools. Both nutrition and school attendance have improved dramatically where the program has been implemented, particularly among girls.
The final problem tackled in this part of the report is the complex impact of natural disasters. The impact of natural disasters is much grater on poorer countries than on wealthier ones because their economies and infrastructure are more fragile and vulnerable. Natural disasters tend to have more severe consequences in the poorer regions of the world. This is vividly illustrated by the two recent disasters - the drought and desert locust infestation that harmed North and West Africa in 2003–04, and the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004. As these two different emergencies indicate, even when natural disasters do not reduce aggregate food supplies substantially, they can have a catastrophic impact on certain population groups. Often the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit, worsening poverty and malnutrition. Disasters also affect fragile livelihoods to such an extent that populations are displaced and long-term rehabilitation is required. Finally, they tend to affect countries that are both poor and unprepared, setting them back on the path to development.
The first problem discussed in the second section of the report deals with the questions of education and undernourishment. Education is regarded as one of the most effective means for reducing hunger and poverty. The goal no.2 in the Millennium Declaration is to ensure that every child in the world receives a primary school education by the year 2015. But difficulties have occurred in fulfilling this objective. More than 121 million school-age children remain out of school. Two-thirds of them are girls, and most of them live in rural areas in the regions where hunger and poverty are most widespread. Among those children who do attend school, one-third drop out before they acquire basic literacy and arithmetic skills. On average, adults have completed only 3.5 years of school in sub-Saharan Africa and only 4.5 years in South Asia. These are also the two sub-regions where hunger is most prevalent and where progress in reducing it has lagged. Data about the linkage between primary school completion and undernourishment in other regions of the developing world is provided by table 3. The main reason that hinders the receiving of primary education is persistence of hunger and malnutrition. As lack of education brings about poverty and hunger, poverty and hunger in return hinder millions of children from receiving education. So reducing hunger and malnutrition is essential in order to improve school attendance and children’s learning capacities and performance, especially among rural people, who make up the vast majority of both the unschooled and the hungry. Likewise, attaining the MDG target for universal education would make a powerful contribution towards achieving the goals for reducing poverty and hunger and would accelerate progress towards other MDGs, such as empowering women and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The next hot spot, which is taken under examination in the report, is gender equality and the empowerment of women. It is suggested that promoting gender equality and empowering women could do more to reduce hunger and malnutrition than any other on MDGs. It is also said that addressing the nutritional needs and knowledge of women is essential both to empowering women and to breaking the circle of hunger.
The linkage between the reduction of hunger and saving children’s lives is the next topic under discussion. Nearly 11 million children die in the world every year before reaching their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occur in developing countries, three-quarters of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition. So there is a clear connection between hunger and the high death rate among children. The target of one of the MDG’s is to reduce the rate of death among children under five by two-thirds by the year 2015. But the indicators showing the reduction of the children death rate has been slowing down during the recent years as it is also indicated in the table 4. And in order to reach the MDG target a comparable acceleration of progress worldwide, fueled by redoubled efforts are required to reduce hunger and malnutrition, the most important causes of child deaths.
The next problem in the second section of the report is the role on hunger as a cause of diseases and vice versa diseases as a cause of hunger. HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are all diseases of hunger and poverty. The overwhelming majority of cases occur in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of undernourishment and extreme poverty. This fact is illustrated in the table 5. These diseases are to strike people when they are in their most productive working years and due to this they bring about hunger and poverty to those who are from a certain disease as well as to their families and communities. The MDGs have set targets for halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and the most crucial factor in receiving them is the reduction of hunger and malnutrition.
These were some examples of the MDGs, which clearly illustrate that the improvement of the state of food insecurity in the world is closely connected with the fulfilling of the targets set in those goals. And the developments in the process of reducing hunger are again in turn an important factor that has a crucial influence on achieving the other MDGs.
As both the World Food Summit in 1996 and the Millennium Summit in 2000 set goals for reducing hunger by half by the year 2015 and the target date is drawing near, but the targets themselves are not an additional practical and affordable “twin-track approach” for combating hunger was mapped out at the International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2002. Track one refers to the importance of strengthening the productivity and incomes of the hungry and poor, targeting the rural areas where the vast majority of them live and the agriculture sector on which their livelihoods depend. Track two emphasizes the importance of providing direct access to food and to create social safety nets for the hungry. The main working principle of the “twin-track approach” in order to reach the WFS goal and to accelerate progress towards the MDG targets could be seen in table 6.
In conclusion, the state of food insecurity in the world is analyzed in the report “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005” prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This report characterized the development process towards the achievement of the World Food Summit goals and the Millennium Development Goals. It emphasized the significant importance of reducing hunger, not only as the direct target of one of the MDG’s but also as a crucial condition for reaching the other MDGs. As a consequence of thorough scientific research the report revealed proof to the statement that hunger and malnutrition are the main reasons why the targets of the other MDGs have not been successfully achieved. This is most evidently seen in the regions where objectives of reducing hunger have not been obtained. But in spite of few setbacks in the course of achieving the goals and targets the prevailing tone of the report did not lose its positive sound and it strongly expressed the viewpoint that most, if not all, of the MDG targets could still be fulfilled. But in order to experience success in receiving the MDG objectives, efforts addressed to accomplish them have to be redoubled and refocused. And the two most important things, in this reorientation, are not to forget, that the MDGs will not be achieved if the process of reducing hunger in the world is not accelerated. And that the battlefields, where the decision is made if the abolishment of hunger and the achievement of MDGs could become reality, are the rural areas of the world where the greatest number of people suffering from food insecurity are located.
Additional Information
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 5
Table 6
Used Materials
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The FAO report “The State of Food Security in the World 2005” (02.04.2006) or (02.04.2006)
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World Food Summit: Basic Information (02.04.2006)
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The Millennium Development Goals Report 2005 (02.04.2006)
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Millennium Development Goal No. 1: Eradication of Poverty and Hunger (02.04.2006) or (O2.04.2006)
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(02.04.2006)
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UN Millennium Development Goals (02.04.2006)
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United Nations Millennium Assembly (02.04.2006)
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An Inter-agency initiative to promote information and mapping systems on food insecurity and vulnerability (02.04.2006)
An Inter-agency initiative to promote information and mapping systems on food insecurity and vulnerability (02.04.2006)
An Inter-agency initiative to promote information and mapping systems on food insecurity and vulnerability (02.04.2006)
World Food Summit: Basic Information (02.04.2006)
World Food Summit: Basic Information (02.04.2006)
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005, page 6, (02.04.2006)
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005, page 6
