Politicians urged to tackle hunger
George McGovern, a former US Senator and Presidential candidate, warned that the fight against hunger was regressing and a new strategy was needed if targets were to be met.
Launching the UN World Food Programme (WFP) meeting in Dublin, he appealed to developed countries to begin by making the world's 300 million starving school children a priority.
"We know where the schools are in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East," he said.
"We know where these school children are. We need to commit ourselves to reaching every single one of those kids."
In 1996, representatives from 185 countries met in Rome and pledged to halve the number of hungry people from 800 million to 400 million by 2015.
"That's only 11 years away," said Mr McGovern.
"In order to meet this target we need to take more than 30 million people off the hunger roll a year.
"But we have actually added 60 million people to this roll since we made this commitment. The reason for this conference is to see what we can do to shift this car into high gear. We need to get moving."
Mr McGovern, founder of the WFP, said there were certain steps developed countries had to take if the target was to be met.
He added that a greater effort was needed by developed countries as well as by developing countries to help themselves.
"We need a concrete, practical formula to achieve this goal," he added.
About 200 of the UN World Food Programme's most senior staff are attending the three-day conference in Dublin.
The event, which is held every five years, was launched on board the Jeanie Johnston, a replica of the ship which carried more than 2,500 emigrants to a new life in the US and Canada during the 19th-century Famine.
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