Hunger Halving hunger: it can be done Summary version Achieving the Millennium Development Goals The UN Millennium Project is an independent advisory body commissioned by the UN Secretary-General to propose the best strategies for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are the world’s quantified targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 – income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter – while promoting gender equality, education, health, and environmental sustainability. The UN Millennium Project is directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Special Advisor to the Secretary- General on the Millennium Development Goals. The bulk of its analytical work is performed by 10 task forces, each composed of scholars, policymakers, civil society leaders, and private-sector representatives. The UN Millennium Project reports directly to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, in his capacity as Chair of the UN Devel- opment Group. Halving hunger: it can be done Summary version Lead authors Pedro Sanchez, Coordinator M.S. Swaminathan, Coordinator Philip Dobie Nalan Yuksel UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger 2005 Copyright ©2005, United Nations Development Programme New York, New York Correct citation: UN Millennium Project 2005. Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done. Summary version of the report of the Task Force on Hunger. The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, USA. For more information about the Task Force on Hunger, contact: [email protected] This report is an independent publication that reflects the views of the UN Millennium Project’s Task Force on Hunger, whose members contributed in their personal capacity. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, or their Member States. Preface The UN Millennium Project established the Task Force on Hunger in 2002, with a mandate to develop a strategy for halving world hunger by 2015. This summary report sets out the task force’s recommendations and interventions for achieving this target. It builds on many previous attempts to eliminate world hunger, which have cut the world’s proportion of hungry people from 33 percent to 18 percent over the past 40 years. Yet 852 million people still go to bed hungry every night. On 5 July 2004, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, addressing a semi- nar in Addis Ababa, called for a “uniquely African Green Revolution in the twenty-first century” to spearhead the fight against hunger. Excerpts from his speech are given on p. 29. The interventions described in this report respond to the Secretary-General’s call for concerted action to reduce hunger – in Africa and throughout the world. Our conclusion is that hunger can be halved by 2015 and eventually eradicated from our planet – with the deliberate and timely implementation of our recommen- dations. It can be done. Pedro A. Sanchez M.S. Swaminathan Coordinators, UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger, New York and Chennai 17 January 2005 Task force members Task force coordinators Pedro A. Sanchez, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, United States M.S. Swaminathan, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India Task force members Abenaa Akuamoa-Boateng, Ministry of Health, Kumasi, Ghana Tom Arnold, Concern Worldwide, Dublin, Ireland Richard Beahrs (retired), Court TV, New York, United States David Beckmann, Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute, Washington, D.C., United States Bo Bengtsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden Roland Bunch, World Neighbors, Palo Alto, United States Kevin Cleaver, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., United States William Dar, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, India Glenn Denning, Millennium Development Goals Technical Support Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, and The Earth Institute at Columbia Univer- sity, New York, United States Philip Dobie, United Nations Development Programme, Nairobi, Kenya Don S. Doering, Winrock International, Washington, D.C., United States Christopher Dowswell, Sasakawa Global 2000, Mexico City, Mexico Hans Eenhoorn (retired), Unilever, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Joan Holmes, The Hunger Project, New York, United States Robert Horsch, Monsanto Company, St. Louis, United States Bashir Jama, World Agoforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya Halving hunger: it can be done v Monty P. Jones, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Accra, Ghana Freddie Kwesiga, World Agroforestry Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe Peter Matlon, Rockefeller Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya Njabulo Nduli, Department of Agriculture, Pretoria, South Africa Johnson Nkuuhe, Parliament, Kampala, Uganda Timothy Reeves (retired), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Geelong, Australia Sara J. Scherr, Forest Trends, Washington, D.C., United States Meera Shekar, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., United States Kostas Stamoulis, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy Joachim von Braun, International Food Policy Research Institute, Wash- ington, D.C., United States Florence Wambugu, Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, Nairobi, Kenya Patrick Webb, United Nations World Food Programme, Rome, Italy Lars Wiersholm (retired), Yara International, Dilling, Norway Task force manager Lisa Dreier, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, United States Task force associates Individuals who have made major analytic contributions to the work of the task force: Akin Adesina, Rockefeller Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya Chandrika Bahadur, UN Millennium Project, New York, United States Rafael Flor, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, United States Lawrence Haddad, Institute for Development Studies, Brighton, United Kingdom Nwanze Okidegbe, The World Bank, Washington, D.C, United States Cheryl Palm, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, United States Manohar Sharma, International Food Policy Research Institute, Wash- ington, D.C., United States Alex de Sherbinin, Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Palisades, United States Adam Storeygard, Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Palisades, United States Nalan Yuksel, Canadian International Development Agency, Ottawa, Canada. The seven recommendations of the Task Force on Hunger 1. Move from political commitment to action • Advocate political action to meet intergovernmental agreements to end hunger • Strengthen the contributions of donor countries and national governments to activities that combat hunger • Improve public awareness of hunger issues and strengthen advocacy organizations • Strengthen developing country organizations that deal with poverty reduction and hunger • Strengthen accurate data collection, monitoring, and evaluation 2. Reform policies and create an enabling environment • Promote an integrated policy approach to hunger reduction • Restore budgetary priority to the agricultural and rural sectors • Build developing country capacity to achieve the hunger Goal • Link nutritional and agricultural interventions • Increase poor people’s access to land and other productive resources • Empower women and girls • Strengthen agricultural and nutrition research • Remove internal and regional barriers to agricultural trade • Increase the effectiveness of donor agencies’ hunger-related program- ming • Create vibrant partnerships to ensure effective policy implementation 3. Increase the agricultural productivity of food-insecure farmers • Improve soil health • Improve and expand small-scale water management Halving hunger: it can be done vii • Improve access to better seeds and other planting materials • Diversify on-farm enterprises with high-value products • Establish effective agricultural extension services 4. Improve nutrition for the chronically hungry and vulnerable • Promote mother and infant nutrition • Reduce malnutrition among children under five years of age • Reduce malnutrition among school- age children and adolescents • Reduce vitamin and mineral deficien- cies • Reduce the prevalence of infec- tious diseases that contribute to mal- nutrition 5. Reduce vulnerability of the acutely hungry through productive safety nets • Build and strengthen national and local early warning systems • Build and strengthen national and local capacity to respond to emer- gencies • Invest in productive safety nets to protect the poorest from short-term shocks and to reduce long-term food insecurity 6. Increase incomes and make markets work for the poor • Invest in and maintain market-related infrastructure • Develop networks of small rural input traders • Improve access to financial services for the poor and food-insecure • Provide and enforce a sound legal and regulatory framework • Strengthen the bargaining power of the rural and urban poor in labor markets • Ensure access to market information for the poor • Promote and strengthen community and farmer associations • Promote alternative sources of employment and income 7. Restore and conserve the natural resources essential for food security • Help communities and households restore or enhance natural resources • Secure local ownership, access, and management rights to forests, fisher- ies, and rangelands • Develop natural resource-based “green enterprises” • Pay poor rural communities for environmental services. Acknowledgements The Task Force on Hunger is indebted to the many individuals, institutions, and com- munities that have contributed to its work. Jeffrey Sachs provided bold leadership of the UN Millennium Project; he and the Project’s Secretariat staff made tremendous contributions to our work. A number of institutions generously hosted or co-organized task force meetings, events, or study tours in Africa, India, Europe, and the USA. These include the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the International Livestock Research Institute, the UN Millennium Project, the New Part- nership for Africa’s Development, the Rockefeller Foundation, the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation, the World Agroforestry Centre, the World Bank, the World Food Prize Foundation, and the United Nations World Food Programme. The task force drew from the research and expertise of these and many other insti- tutions, commissioning research papers on a wide range of themes. We thank our many authors and contributors, including the lead authors of the three task force reports (Sara Scherr, Don Doering, Philip Dobie, and Nalan Yuksel), and contributing authors to the final report (Lisa Dreier, Rafael Flor, and many task force members). Donor agencies and other partners that generously supported our work include the United Nations Millennium Project Trust Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the Canadian International Development Agency, the UK’s Department for International Development, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Develop- ment Cooperation Ireland, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the World Bank, and the United Nations World Food Programme. The task force is also grateful for the incisive reviews of its main report, from both individuals and institutions. Their contributions enriched the report considerably. Lastly, we thank the community members in the hungry regions we visited, who inspired us with their tenacity, innovations, and hope.