UN Millennium Development Library: Halving Hunger It Can Be Done

Foreword -- Task force members -- Preface -- The Task Force on Hunger’s methodology -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Millennium Development Goals -- Executive summary -- 1. The imperatives for reducing hunger -- Defining hunger -- Determinants of hunger -- The social and economic costs of hunger -- Moral and legal foundations for eradicating hunger -- 2. Who is on track or off track to meet the hunger Goal? -- Hunger hotspots—measuring underweight at the subnational level -- Hunger indicator 1—percentage of the population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption -- Hunger indicator 2—the prevalence of underweight children under five years of age -- Underweight children in Africa -- Underweight children in Asia -- Underweight children in Central Asia and Europe -- Underweight children in Latin America and the Caribbean -- A global view of the prevalence and density of underweight children -- 3. A strategic approach for halving hunger -- Forging a global partnership -- Promoting good governance -- Mainstreaming gender equality -- Adopting a people-centered approach -- Investing in science and technology -- Vulnerability analysis—a tool for setting priorities -- The seven recommendations -- 4. Move from political commitment to action [Recommendation one] -- Background -- Advocate political action to meet intergovernmental agreements -- 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 advocacy organizations that deal with poverty and hunger -- Strengthen accurate data collection, monitoring, and evaluation -- Actions needed to implement recommendation one -- 5. Reform policies and create an enabling environment [Recommendation two] -- Background -- Promote an integrated policy approach to hunger reduction -- Restore the budgetary priority of 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 programming -- Create vibrant partnerships to ensure effective policy implementation -- Actions needed to implement recommendation two -- 6. Increase the agricultural productivity of food-insecure farmers [Recommendation three] -- Background -- Improve soil health -- Improve and expand small-scale water management -- Improve access to better seeds and other planting materials -- Diversify on-farm enterprises with high-value products -- Establish effective agricultural extension services -- Actions needed to implement recommendation three -- 7. Improve nutrition for the chronically hungry and vulnerable [Recommendation four] -- Background -- Promote mother and infant nutrition -- Reduce malnutrition among children under age five -- Reduce malnutrition among school-age children and adolescents -- Reduce vitamin and mineral deficiencies -- Reduce infectious diseases that contribute to malnutrition -- Actions needed to implement recommendation four -- 8. Reduce the vulnerability of the acutely hungry through productive safety nets [Recommendation five] -- Background -- Build and strengthen national and local early warning systems -- Build and strengthen the capacity to respond to emergencies -- Invest in productive social safety nets -- Actions needed to implement recommendation five -- 9. Increase incomes and make markets work for the poor [Recommendation six] -- Background -- 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 -- Actions needed to implement recommendation six -- 10. Restore and conserve the natural resources essential for food security [Recommendation seven] -- Background -- Help communities and households restore or enhance natural resources -- Secure local ownership, access, and management rights to natural resources -- Develop natural resource-based “green enterprises” -- Pay poor rural communities for environmental services -- Actions needed to implement recommendation seven -- 11. Implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Hunger -- Setting priorities for interventions -- Strengthening capacity for scaling up -- Refining national hunger strategies -- Securing financing for implementation -- Implementation at the local level -- Synergistic entry points to overcoming hunger -- Appendix 1. Glossary -- Appendix 2. Papers Commissioned by the Task Force on Hunger -- Appendix 3. Subregional data on underweight prevalence -- Notes -- References.

Millennium Project, UN