The United Nations has announced that the number of chronically undernourished individuals has dropped below the 800 million mark globally, meaning more countries have reached their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for hunger.
The new State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 (SOFI) report places the number of hungry at 795 million, which is 216 million fewer than the numbers seen back in 1990, and 100 million fewer than in 2012.
"The near-achievement of the MDG hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our lifetime," said FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva. "We must be the Zero Hunger generation. That goal should be mainstreamed into all policy interventions and at the heart of the new sustainable development agenda to be established this year."
Seventy-two of the 129 counties monitored by the report have reached their Millennium Development Goal target of cutting hunger in half by 2015. Twenty-nine of these countries have met even more impressive goals given by the World Food Summit in 1996, which aimed to halve the absolute number of undernourished people by 2015.
It has been suggested that to eliminate world hunger, international communities must make it a priority to focus on rural areas of developing counties, where hunger is most devastating and prevalent.
"We must work to create a transformation in our rural communities so they provide decent jobs, decent conditions and decent opportunities," said IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze. "We must invest in rural areas so that our nations can have balanced growth and so that the three billion people who live in rural areas can fulfil their potential."
The researchers on the report noted that while progress has been made in the fight against global hunger, some food security goals were deterred by events such as extreme weather events and political instability. The report also points out that the world population has grown by 1.9 billion since 1990, so the numbers seen in the 2015 analysis are even more impressive. Some of the largest reductions in hunger were seen in East Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and regions of Africa. The researchers believe these improvements have been achieved largely through "agricultural productivity, inclusive economic growth, and the expansion of social protection."
"Men, women and children need nutritious food every day to have any chance of a free and prosperous future," said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. "Healthy bodies and minds are fundamental to both individual and economic growth, and that growth must be inclusive for us to make hunger history."
The findings were jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
