This fifth edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) provides the latest estimates of the number of chronically hungry people in the world and reports on global and national efforts to reach the goal set by the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996 – to reduce that number to half the level reported at the time of the Summit by the year 2015.
The report is divided into four main sections. The first, Undernourishment around the world, analyses the latest data on hunger. The second contains a special feature on international trade. The third, Towards the Summit commitments, discusses approaches to fulfilling the commitments in the WFS Plan of Action. Finally, tables provide detailed indicators for developing countries and countries in transition.
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems
On behalf of the Inter-Agency Working Group on FIVIMS (IAWG-FIVIMS), I commend FAO on the 2003 edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World. This report has justifiably become a flagship report in the food security arena. Each year it clearly lays out how far we have come in achieving global food security and how far we still have to travel.
Since FIVIMS was created in 1997 we have seen the emergence of the Millennium Development Goals process, the country Poverty Reduction Strategy papers and a new emphasis on the progressive realization of the right to food, coupled with an increasingly shared vision of the causes of food insecurity and vulnerability within a livelihood framework. Recognizing these changes, the FIVIMS Initiative is currently examining what it has achieved and its strategic priorities for going forward. The inter-agency nature of FIVIMS represents one of our greatest strengths – the ability to coordinate information activities and to share relevant experiences, approaches and methodologies. Building on a collaborative assessment of our past activities, and consultations with many stakeholders, we will formulate a new, forward-looking strategic plan. I look forward to sharing the results of the assessment and strategic planning in the 2004 issue of SOFI.
I encourage all readers of SOFI to translate information into action. Use this report to shine a spotlight on food insecurity and hunger; mobilize resources and political will in your constituency – global, national, and local – to meet the challenge. We must all play our part, and on behalf of FIVIMS we commit ourselves to work in partnership with you to eliminate the scourge of hunger from our planet once and for all.
Lynn R Brown (World Bank)
Chair, IAWG-FIVIMS
Bilateral aid and technical agencies
Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
EuropeAid Co-operation Office (EuropeAid)
German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ)
United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID)
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
United Nations and Bretton Woods agencies
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
International Labour Organization (ILO)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
World Bank (WB)
World Food Programme (WFP)
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN)
International agricultural research organizations
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR)
International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
International non-governmental organizations
CARE
Helen Keller International (HKI)
The Rockefeller Foundation
Save the Children Fund UK (SCFUK)
World Resources Institute (WRI)
Regional organizations
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)