Urgent action needed to meet targets for reducing world hunger

THIS week marks the 10th anniversary of the World Food Summit in 1996, when 185 countries pledged to halve world hunger by 2015.

Ten years on, member states of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) committee on world food security — together with civil society, the private sector, international institutions and other actors — are meeting in Rome to take stock of what progress has been achieved.

However, far from being an occasion to celebrate progress, the most recent data shows that world hunger levels have actually deteriorated since 1996.