In early 2008, soaring food prices drew extensive public attention to the issue of hunger in the Asia-Pacific region. The food price crisis threatened to reverse critical gains made toward reducing poverty and hunger as outlined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Much of the increased attention focused on the issue of price rather than the structural causes of hunger, including social exclusion, inequitable distribution, access to natural resources and low agricultural productivity.
High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All – January 26-27, 2009, Madrid
The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) held the High-Level Conference on World FoodSecurity: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy in Rome on June 3-5, 2008.Throughout the three days of events, 42 Heads of State and Government, 100 high-level Ministersand 60 non-governmental and civil society organizations from 181 member countries discussed thechallenges that climate change, bioenergy and soaring food prices pose to world food security and devised ways to safeguard the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Although many countries remain off track in meeting the ambitious Millennium Development Goals that seek to slash hunger poverty and a host of other social ills by 2015, quick and significant progress is obviously possible, according to Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
