FAO, IFAD, and WFP. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015: Meeting the 2015 International Hunger Targets: Taking Stock of Uneven Progress. Rome: FAO, 2015

Abstract

Genesis of Report The last 3 decades have ushered in considerable international humanitarian focus on reducing hunger for all people, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, age, income, and geographic location. Highlighting this global initiative have been 2 major commitments put forth by the UN member states, one in 1996 and the other in 2000. The former was launched in Rome by 182 governments participating in the World Food Summit when they committed “...to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.” To put this into perspective, in 1990, ;991 million people around the world were considered to be undernourished, generally defined as being underweight for one’s age, too short for one’s age (stunted), dangerously thin for one’s height (wasted), and/or deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition). In 2000, as part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goal, the following was put forth as an international aim: “cutting by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.” Approximately 23% of the world’s population was considered to be hungry or (synonymously) undernourished in 1990. In a nutshell, the World Food Summit goal was to halve the number of malnourished people, whereas that of the Millennium Development Goals was to halve the proportion of people who are hungry. With the end date of 2015 upon us, the UN’s most recent annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report takes stock of the progress made toward achieving these slightly different yet equally ambitious and fundamental goals related to greatly reducing world hunger. Key findings and messages from this report jointly prepared by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Food Program are summarized here.