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From Vol. XLIV, No. 4, "The MDGs: Are We on Track?",? December 2007

In their solemn Millennium Declaration of 2000, world leaders committed themselves to spare no effort to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the world's people who suffer from poverty and hunger. Just seven years remain for us to meet that momentous challenge. Having passed the halfway mark in the race against hunger, the most important lesson we have learned is that it can still be won; however, a much greater and more sustained effort will be required of us.

Progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) first and most important objective -- eradicate poverty and hunger -- has been uneven. On the one hand, according to the World Bank, at the global level the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from 28 per cent in 1990 to 20 per cent in 2003. On the other, for the proportion of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition in developing countries, where hunger is concentrated, only a 3-per-cent drop, from 20 to 17 per cent, was registered.

Measured in terms of the number of undernourished people, rather than of the prevalence of hunger in the total population, achieving the challenge appears even more daunting. Despite rapid economic growth in China and India, the Asia and Pacific region is still home to the greatest number of poor and hungry people in the world. The prevalence of undernourishment in the region is second only to that of Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean, encouraging progress has been made, with the number of the hungry falling to 52 million in 2001-2003, about 12 per cent less than a decade earlier. Progress in Central America has not been so positive, however.

In all regions, the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) -- the flagship initiative on hunger reduction of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) -- is being scaled up to the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS). In over 100 countries worldwide, these programmes promote effective solutions towards the elimination of hunger, undernourishment and poverty. More than $770 million from donors and national governments have been invested in FAO-supported food security programmes, which promote national ownership and local empowerment. Almost half of these programmes are in sub-Saharan Africa, where the highest concentration of malnutrition is to be found and where one in three people suffered from chronic hunger in 2001-2003. The situation is complicated by rapid population growth and, now, by high vulnerability to climate change.

Recognizing that the region poses a special problem, the United Nations, in September 2007, launched a new high-level international development initiative, the MDG Africa Steering Group, to help put Africa back on track towards achieving the MDGs. Along with the African Union, FAO will provide leadership in the Steering Group, which includes UN agencies and other major international and regional organizations, on issues relating to agriculture and food security.

Efforts to reduce hunger in Africa have been hampered by natural and human-induced disasters, including conflicts and the spread of HIV/AIDS. And while economic growth in a number of African countries has been impressive over the last few years, the evidence is that growth alone, in the absence of specific measures to combat hunger, may leave a large number of people behind, particularly in rural areas.

Growth in the agricultural sector is thus a critical factor in hunger and poverty reduction, as was recently recognized by the World Bank in its 2008 World Development Report: Agriculture for Development, the first such report in a quarter of a century devoted to agriculture. "It is time to place agriculture afresh at the centre of development, taking account of the vastly different context of opportunities and challenges that has emerged", the Bank stated. It also noted that gross domestic product (GDP) growth "generated by agriculture has large benefits for the poor and is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth generated by other sectors". Agricultural growth thus impacts significantly on other sectors of the economy and is therefore a crucial element in helping achieve the other MDGs. For instance, FAO activities in this area also contribute to achieving MDG 7 on environmental sustainability and MDG 8 concerning agricultural trade.

Returning to Africa, the region's agricultural and overall economic growth involves implementing a major, smallholder-based programme of farm and rural development, amounting to a "Green Revolution for Africa" to feed the continent's fast-growing urban and rural populations. This objective has been endorsed by African leaders, who in 2003 undertook to devote at least 10 per cent of their budgets to the farm sector within five years.
The top priority for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigation, given that only 4 per cent of African farmland -- 10 times less than in Asia -- benefit from water management. This has become even more urgent in the light of the increasingly damaging effects of climate change. Higher temperatures, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), could result in a 50-per-cent reduction in crop yields in some African countries by as early as 2020.

Climate change also makes it more important than ever that improved, drought-resistant African crop varieties are developed and introduced. In a number of African countries, for instance, FAO is currently helping distribute a new breed of rice, which was specifically designed for Africa's often harsh growing conditions and can yield more than three times as much as traditional varieties. However, if agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is to advance beyond subsistence level or reach further than local markets, major investments will be needed in infrastructure. Growing food is not enough; it then has to be moved to national and export markets, and this calls for transport and communications infrastructure and appropriate storage and cold-chain distribution facilities.

How can the international community help? A good place to start would be by closing the gap between rhetoric and results. One example is the G8 pledge in 2005 to double aid for Africa by 2010, which, in practice, translated into a decline of official development assistance between 2005 and 2006, with a continued slight reduction expected in 2007. More than promises, how ever generous, beneficiaries need to plan for aid on a continuous and predictable basis. Establishing multi-year schedules of aid flows to recipient countries would be a major step in that direction. And while lip service continues to be paid to the goal of trading out of poverty, the Doha round of trade negotiations continues to be stalled, preventing poor countries from taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by globalized markets. Early action on moving the talks towards a successful conclusion is therefore essential.

Unprecedented economic growth in China and India and in emerging economies has had profound repercussions on the international scene. South-South trade has created new markets for products, goods and services from developing countries and a surge in foreign direct investment to Africa, which reached a record $38 billion in 2006, albeit a paltry sum for agriculture. Increased demand for commodities in emerging economies has recently fuelled, in part, a sharp increase in food prices. This has implications for the food security of the poor. Food- and energy-importing countries in particular have to cope with the double burden of much more costly food and oil imports. But we should not forget that higher prices can also offer a chance of increased income for farmers and could result in significant longer-term reduction in poverty and hunger. But that objective can only be achieved if we promptly address water, infrastructure and trade priorities.

Similarly, we should properly advise developing countries to make relevant policy choices in the face of the rapidly growing bioenergy market. The full potential for bioenergy will not benefit developing countries as long as the majority of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries continues to maintain high tariff barriers to protect their own producers.

Developing countries in Africa and elsewhere are currently making impressive headway in lifting themselves out of poverty. Ghana, for instance, has already achieved the MDG on hunger, and a dozen others have reduced the number of their undernourished. While providing developing countries with the financing, technology and expertise they need to progress further, we must also spare no effort in ensuring that they can compete in the global arena on just terms.

Overall, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is still feasible in the next seven years, as long as we are prepared to forsake narrow self-interest, redouble our efforts and take full advantage of the new opportunities offered to us. FAO, for its part, in close collaboration with the World Food Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and other UN agencies, and in partnership with the private sector and other public institutions and non-governmental organizations, remains, more than ever, committed to that momentous task.