Wednesday, 9 November 2005 - 10:15 AM
226-6

Achieving the Hunger Millennium Development Goal at the Global Level.

Pedro Sanchez, Tropical Agriculture Program, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, 2-G Lamont Hall, P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, Jeffrey Sachs, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, 314 Low Library, 535 West 116th Street MC 4327, New York, NY 10027, and John McArthur, United Nations Development Programme, UN Millennium Project, One United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017.

Around 92% of the 852 million hungry people in the developing world suffers from chronic malnutrition while nearly 8% suffers from acute hunger caused by extreme events such as famines and wars. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where trends indicate a worsening situation every day—a silent Tsunami is affecting this region, killing 200,000 people every month. The UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force recommends at the global level to build partnerships between developed and developing countries to: a) develop and implement MDG-based poverty reduction strategies that promote science-based policies and encourage investments in both supply and demand, b) advocate political action to meet intergovernmental agreements to end hunger and improve public awareness on poverty and hunger issues, and c) strengthen the contribution of donor countries and national governments to activities that combat hunger. Investments will be needed on the supply side (soil health, small-scale water, improved seeds, higher value products, and agricultural extension) as well as on the demand side (homegrown school feeding, take-home rations, micronutrient supplementation and nutrition extension). UN Secretary-General called for a “Uniquely African Green Revolution in the 21st Century” that would capitalize on existing knowledge to transform the region's agriculture, nutrition and markets. This call is in line with the findings of the UN Millennium Project and Blair Commission on Africa. It has been estimated that a targeted investment of 110 US$ per capita per year for the next 10 years will be needed to achieve all the MDGs. Out of this amount, around 10 US$ is the household share, while 30 US$ and 70 US$ are the government's and donor's share, respectively. The amount needed from donors is around 0.7 percent of GNP by 2015. This target has been long-lasting committed by donor countries.

Keywords: MDGs, Poverty, Hunger, Investment, Agriculture, Nutrition


Back to Emerging Nutrient Technologies
Back to A09 Professional Practitioners

Back to The ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meetings (November 6-10, 2005)