The way ahead
- accelerating the pace of progress

No one can deny that progress towards the eradication of hunger is too slow. The number of undernourished people remains essentially unchanged since the 1999 edition of "The state of food insecurity in the world".

The problem of hunger can be viewed from two broad perspectives. One is the view of the mayor or village chief, who sees the faces of the hungry every day and knows that, with the proper tools and resources, they could feed themselves. The other is the view of the statesperson in the national capital or the international agency. He or she sees the statistics and the causes of hunger and knows that, with the proper policies, the villager could obtain the necessary tools and resources.

Both views, the local and the global, must orient action. We must target and tailor specific remedies to the diverse needs of the groups in every society who are vulnerable to or suffer from hunger. We must also address the policies and enabling environments at the national and international levels that hamper people's ability to find the opportunities and the means to conduct their own fight against hunger and poverty. There is no one "way ahead"-- there are many.

Local action, even if well targeted, can only be effective if the policy environment at both national and international levels offers food-insecure countries and their people a set of choices to help them move beyond the margin of survival. At the same time, countries must also take up this task. Systematic collection of reliable data on the state of food insecurity in every nation is crucial.

At its most basic level, the way ahead is a matter of creating the conditions that enable people to secure their right to adequate food in a dignified manner. The immediate goal must be to lift the constraints and open up new livelihood opportunities. There can be no single solution to alleviating undernourishment, nor will the solutions be simple. But progress can be achieved if individual countries and the international community act consciously on the commitments they made at the World Food Summit. The way forward will be long and challenging. The time to strengthen the resolve is now.

Food security cannot be achieved without a peaceful environnement - interview with Christina Andela, one of the Coordinators of the Coalition of African Organizations for Food Security and Sustainable Development (1:29 min). Mp3 (687Kb), Realaudio (182Kb)

Full SOFI report in pdf (1 MB)
SOFI summary in pdf (376 K)