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FAO believes the WFS and related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are attainable. The world already produces enough food for all. The problem is that hungry people cannot take advantage of opportunity.
The majority of hungry people are in rural areas, far from assets and services that could improve their lives. Deprived of food and essential nutrients, they fall sick and die young. Weakness prevents them from working well or at all. Hungry mothers give birth to underweight babies and the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger begin anew.
FAO advocates a twin-track approach, combining improved production for small farmers and immediate help for the most poor and hungry. These two tracks are mutually reinforcing, since providing food to hungry people also spurs increased production.
The twin-track approach is at the heart of the Anti-Hunger Programme. This is not an FAO programme. Nor is it a call for additional resources. It is FAO's best thinking on how to bring about rapid reductions in the number of hungry. It also estimates what these actions would cost.
The International Alliance Against Hunger (IAAH)
envisions a global network of partners dedicated to helping people escape the indignity of hunger and poverty. National alliances are already forming, which will address local challenges while contributing to the broader, global effort. A strategy for making progress on the IAAH will be discussed at the Committee on World Food Security meeting in September 2004.
In one way or another, all of FAO's activities contribute to reducing hunger and thus reaching the WFS and MDG goals. Some of them are listed here. FAO also contributes its expertise in many country activities.
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