blog world hunger
International Food Policy Research Institute
sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty



Blog world hunger is an open global food and nutrition security diary that aims to help the effort to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting world food needs in ways that conserve the natural resource base. It is facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

 
"If concentrated in a single nation, the world's poorest people--the ultra poor--would comprise the world’s seventh most populous country."
New Study Examines Plight of Poor Living on Less than 50 Cents a Day, November 6, 2007
"Despite much progress reducing poverty worldwide, a substantial number of the world’s poorest people are being left behind, according to a new report by IFPRI. The report, The World’s Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger, is the the first to use household poverty data from 1990 to 2004 to look below the dollar-a-day poverty line and examine who the poorest people are, where they live, and how they have fared over time."
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Posted by mpietrowski at 6 Nov 2007, 6:01 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Innovative approaches and more effective action are needed to improve the welfare of the world's poorest and hungry.
Taking Action for the World’s Poor and Hungry People: A Way Forward, October 18, 2007
"Concerned that millions of the world's poorest and hungry people remain in poverty and hunger, we at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) facilitated a consultation process, which includes the conference “Taking Action for the World’s Poor and Hungry People” to examine what new and different action is required to improve their welfare. This statement is a synthesis of our conclusions to stimulate debate on the way forward and action."
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Posted by mpietrowski at 18 Oct 2007, 12:04 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
"None are more committed to ending poverty than the poor themselves."
Message from Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Beijing, 17 October 2007
"At the dawn of the Millennium, world leaders made bold pledges to the world’s poor. They pledged a world where all children complete their elementary education; a world where people have access to safe drinking water, and families are protected from deadly diseases like malaria...Above all, our leaders promised a world where people are no longer condemned to a life of extreme and egregious poverty."
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Posted by mpietrowski at 17 Oct 2007, 4:48 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
International Conference Convened to Take Action for the World's Poor and Hungry People
BEIJING—More than 400 policymakers and experts from around the world are gathering in Beijing today for the three-day conference, "Taking Action for the World's Poor and Hungry People," to assess progress achieved in reducing global poverty and hunger and to identify new approaches for improving the welfare of the world's most deprived people.
The conference occurs at the halfway point between the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) declaration of halving the proportion of the world's poor and hungry people by 2015. While the world is on track to reach this target at the global level, many developing countries are not and millions of poor people are at risk of being left behind.
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Posted by mpietrowski at 17 Oct 2007, 3:21 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Saving the Earth without Hurting the Poor
Ever-increasing carbon emissions and their impact on the earth’s climate are at the top of the international environmental agenda. What are the optimal ways to reduce these emissions? While government officials are pursuing a variety of options, biofuels have captured the imagination of policymakers worldwide, with proponents supporting a range of fuel sources—from corn to sugarcane to algae. But as the demand for biofuels grows larger, what will be the impact on the world’s poor? IFPRI has begun research on how to both meet the growing demand for agricultural products and the subsequent increased need for energy through an environmentally sustainable, pro-poor approach. Increased demand for corn—both for ethanol and as feed for livestock—is driving up prices and threatening food security in the developing world. Additionally, land degradation and water scarcity will increase as more biofuel crops are planted. What type of approach offers the best chance for satisfying the world’s appetite for energy without depleting environmental quality or the socioeconomic conditions of the world's poor and hungry?
 
For more information on IFPRI’s bioenergy research, visit http://www.ifpri.org/themes/bioenergy/bioenergy.asp. For more general information on IFPRI’s work on the environment, visit http://www.ifpri.org/divs/eptd.htm
To find out more about what you can do to help the environment on Blog Action Day (October 15), visit http://blogactionday.org/
    - Mark Rosegrant, Division Director, Environment and Production Technology, IFPRI
 

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Posted by clakatos at 14 Oct 2007, 6:43 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
New Global Hunger Index Shows Most Countries Are Making Slow Progress
Only two regions of the world—Latin America & the Caribbean and East Asia & Pacific—are on track to reach all Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets related to hunger and child mortality. As part of the MDGs, the international community set targets to cut hunger in half and under-five mortality rates by two-thirds by 2015. According to the Global Hunger Index, most countries will not reach all these targets if progress continues at current rates.
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Posted by mpietrowski at 12 Oct 2007, 2:08 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Impacts of a ‘Food for Education’ Program in Bangladesh

Standing Panel on Impact Assessment: Science Council Brief Number 3

As part of the overall CGIAR 2005 annual performance measurement exercise, the Science Council received 30 individual case studies of Center impact. These were the best examples of impact assessments done by the Centers during 2003–2005. The Science Council's Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) identified six of these as being particularly meritorious in terms of quality of analysis and presentation. In recognition of these studies as good examples of emerging ‘best practice’, SPIA has, with the relevant Center's concurrence, prepared Science Council/SPIA Briefs on each. Publishing quality impact briefs responds to continued calls from donors to the CGIAR for more documented evidence of impacts to be made available in the form of such concise publications.

(PDF 143K(

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Posted by M Bayeh at 17 Aug 2007, 9:20 AM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Global Media and the Development Story: An Introduction
Please read these commentaries on media and development and share your reactions on this blog. Does the media do a good job when it comes to covering issues of hunger and poverty? Where do they go wrong and what do they miss? What are the challenges faced by journalists from industrialized and developing countries? How well does the media cover these issues in your country? We would like to hear from reporters, scientists, practitioners, and anyone with an interest in development.
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Posted by M Bayeh at 18 May 2007, 11:19 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Can Local Government Work for the Poor?
Many developing countries are turning over functions formerly carried out by the central government to local governments. Can decentralization make government work better for poor people?
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Posted by M Allen at 18 Apr 2007, 11:12 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Modelando el manejo de los recursos del agua al nivel de cuenca: metodología y aplicación a la cuenca del Río Maipo
El modelo integrado de cuenca hidrológico-económico ofrece nuevas perspectivas para el diseño apropiado de políticas del agua y para la identificación de reformas prioritarias en la asignación de los recursos hídricos.
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Posted by M Bayeh at 8 Mar 2007, 4:08 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
How Will Agriculture Adapt to a Shifting Climate?

December 2006 IFPRI Forum features lead article on agriculture and climate change. Includes a forum with international development leaders on the successes and failures of 2006 and challenges for 2007 and commentary on obesity and chronic diseases in Africa.

Global climate change poses particular risks to poor farmers in developing countries, but there are steps that farmers, policymakers, and researchers can take to minimize losses and adapt to climate change...

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Posted by M Allen at 6 Feb 2007, 3:46 PM | View Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
ECOGENLit - Economics Literature on Plant and Livestock Genetic Resources
ECOGENLit is a unique collection of literature that reflects the emerging interest of applied economists in plant and livestock biodiversity. The web-based bibliography is organized by themes and is also a complete searchable database.
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Posted by M Bayeh at 26 Jan 2007, 4:59 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Countries with a History of Conflict Rank Poorly on New Global Hunger Index
Released for World Food Day, IFPRI's Global Hunger Index reveals hunger hotspots, shows which regions have improved over time, and demonstrates the links between hunger and war, HIV/AIDS, and gross national income.
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Posted by M Bayeh at 19 Oct 2006, 10:25 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Coping with an Aging World
In the face of rapidly aging populations in some parts of the developing world, policymakers and development experts must take steps to ensure that older people can lead healthy and productive lives. ... So what can policymakers, researchers, and development professionals do to help societies cope with older populations and to help older people improve their lives and livelihoods? IFPRI Forum June 2006
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Posted by M Bayeh at 19 Jul 2006, 6:20 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Healthy Agriculture for Healthy People
The development community increasingly recognizes the many links between human health and the practice and products of agriculture. Some policymakers and practitioners are now pursuing opportunities for using these links to achieve both more productive agriculture and better health. The global health community is bracing for the possibility of a pandemic of avian influenza, or bird flu—a disease that has to date been transmitted to humans through contact with infected poultry. The anxiety over bird flu highlights the previously often-overlooked link between agriculture and human health. IFPRI Forum March 2006
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Posted by M Bayeh at 8 May 2006, 10:21 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Building Local Skills and Knowledge for Food Security
Why has capacity building been so problematic? Analysts offer a myriad of reasons and note that, in many cases, poor countries and rich donors alike share the blame. ... Is changing the trend overwhelming? Where should developing nations begin? IFPRI Forum December 2005
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Posted by M Bayeh at 14 Feb 2006, 6:08 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (1)
Agricultural and Economic Development Strategies and the Transformation of China and India
 by Joachim von Braun, Ashok Gulati, and Shenggen Fan


What can the world learn from the process of economic reform in China and India? Does the sequencing of reforms matter? What lessons do the experiences of in these countries offer for other developing countries and countries in economic transition? What could China and India learn from their own as well as each other’s experiences?

Full Text (PDF 160K)

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Posted by M Bayeh at 4 Jan 2006, 5:40 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Can Public and Private Sectors Work Together for the Poor?
Public research institutions and private industry are increasingly joining forces to pursue agricultural research directed toward meeting the needs of poor farmers and consumers. Are these public-private partnerships simply a new development fad or a promising approach to achieving agricultural advances for the poor? IFPRI Forum, June 2005
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Posted by M Bayeh at 2 Aug 2005, 9:35 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Poorer nations turn to publicly developed GM crops

Genetically modified crops are often framed as the products of multinational corporations, but in poorer nations it is public research that is vibrant and attempting their development. Joel I Cohen analyzes the current state of research, key trends, regulation, genetic resources and institutional roles in developing genetically modified (GM) crops. The first of its kind, this work is meant to help scientists, policy makers and regulators understand their respective country’s public GM crop research agenda, identify polices and regulatory needs for specific GM events and provide a transparent picture of national research and regulation for stakeholders. Nature Biotechnology Volume 23 Number 1 January 2005.

Full Text (PDF 269K)

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Posted by M Bayeh at 22 Jun 2005, 12:05 PM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Agriculture, Food Security, Nutrition and the Millennium Development Goals
by Joachim von Braun, M. S. Swaminathan, and Mark W. Rosegrant


In 2000, the member states of the United Nations committed themselves to creating a "more peaceful, prosperous and just world," to "free[ing] our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty," to making "the right to development a reality for everyone," and to ridding "the entire human race from want."

Are these just more well-meaning words?

Perhaps this time they will make a difference, because the joint declaration also set out eight goals—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)--and each goal has specific, measurable targets that should be met by 2015. These goals aim to make definite improvements in the lives of the world’s poor people, judged, in most cases, against their situation in 1990. The need for accomplishing these goals is immense. Today, 1.1 billion people live on less than one US dollar per day (the internationally recognized poverty threshold)--430 million in South Asia, 325 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 260 million in East Asia and the Pacific, and 55 million in Latin America. Too many children live lives characterized by hunger and illness, and all too often succumb to early death. Moreover, another 1.6 billion people live on between one and two dollars per day, often sliding temporarily below the one dollar per day threshold. To enable all these people to live in dignity, the eight goals to achieve by 2015 are:
  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  8. Develop a global partnership for development
These goals are all indispensable and they require complex, coordinated action. But with such an enormous yet essential mandate at hand, how best can we proceed to 2015?

Full Text
English (PDF 709K) Español (PDF 433K) Français (PDF 542K) Chinese (PDF 1.5M) Arabic
(PDF 781K)

Joachim von Braun is the director general of IFPRI.
M. S. Swaminathan is the chairman of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, the co-coordinator of the Millennium Project's Task Force on Hunger, and president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
Mark W. Rosegrant is the director of IFPRI's Environment and Production Technology Division.

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Posted by M Bayeh at 17 Jun 2005, 3:22 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)