Nicola Winter, a contributor at MediaGlobal, wrote a thoughtful summary of a session at the World Affairs Council's WorldAffairs 2010 conference earlier this month in San Francisco. The session, titled "Responding to the World Food Crisis," focused on how hunger is an integral component to all aspects of development.
In her piece, Winter notes that this point was underscored by Roger Thurow, senior fellow of global agriculture and food policy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, who said, “[h]unger is the common enemy to all Millennium Development Goals,” and pointed out that unlike other epidemics like HIV or cancer, hunger is “one great world problem that we have the power and know how to solve.”
Indeed, Winter agrees that it "makes sense that the eradication of hunger and extreme poverty is the first MDG, as none of the other" goals can be accomplished without first reducing hunger. What is missing, Winter notes, is the right approach.
Additional Resources on the Millennium Development Goals:
- United Nations, "Keeping the promise: a forward-looking review to promote an agreed action agenda to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015," Report of the Secretary-General, March 2010.
- United Nations Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force, "MDG Gap Task Force Report 2009," 2009.
Comments