More than 800 million people world-wide suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition
An abnormal physiological condition caused by deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in energy, protein and/or other nutrients.
. Some progress in hunger reduction and improving the nutritional status
The physiological state of an individual that results from the relationship between nutrient intake and requirements and from the body's ability to digest, absorb and use these nutrients.
of men, women and children is being achieved. Nevertheless, insufficient investment aimed at reducing food insecurity
A situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. It may be caused by the unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution, or inadequate use of food at the household level. Food insecurity, poor conditions of health and sanitation, and inappropriate care and feeding practices are the major causes of poor nutritional status. Food insecurity may be chronic, seasonal or transitory.
, hunger and malnutrition in many developing countries means that World Food Summit (WFS) and Millennium Development Goal
The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that 189 United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals derive from earlier "international development goals", and were officially established at the Millennium Summit in 2000, where 189 world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, from which the eight-goal action plan, the "Millennium Development Goals", was particularly promoted.
(MDG) targets are unlikely to be achieved by the year 2015. Greater efforts in hunger reduction must be made.
The FIVIMS Initiative (Food Insecurity and vulnerability
The presence of factors that place people at risk of becoming food insecure or malnourished, including those factors that affect their ability to cope.
Mapping System) promotes cross-sectoral analysis of underlying causes of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition for improved policy making, programming and action.
The Initiative stems from the 1996 World Food Summit, when countries in the world committed themselves to strengthen information and analysis for improved targetting of hunger reduction policies and programmes by developing food insecurity and vulnerability information and mapping systems.
FIVIMS - Supporting knowledge sharing and good practice for better understanding of food insecurity and vulnerability issues worldwide.
Read more about how FIVIMS works
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Food Security, Nutrition and Livelihoods training in Tanzania- June-July 2008
A 1-week training course on food security
A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
, nutrition and livelihoods analysis was organized by the Government of Tanzania (GoT) in partnership with FAO in Morogoro, Tanzania from the 30th June to 4th July 2008. The course was organized in the context of the One UN Programme and specifically with reference to the Output that focuses on strengthening Livelihoods Based Food Security Information Systems. It was attended by 21 members of the Tanzania Food Security Information Team (FSIT), an inter-ministerial and multi agency committee responsible for food security monitoring in the country. Resource persons for the course came from FAO, WFP, UNICEF and FEWSNET, and the objectives were mainly two: 1) provide an introduction of concepts of food security, nutrition, vulnerability
The presence of factors that place people at risk of becoming food insecure or malnourished, including those factors that affect their ability to cope.
and livelihoods information management; and 2) provide an overview of different methods, tools and indicators used in food security and nutrition assessments. The materials used for the course were drawn mainly from the FAO/EC Distance Learning Courses (www.foodsec.org), the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) and the WFP Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) handbook. The course was generally judged to have been very useful by the participants and to have provided a solid basis for the process of strengthening food security and nutrition information systems in the country. For more information and details please contact Susanne Boetekees (
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) and click here for the full report.
About 50 million more hungry people in 2007
The number of hungry people increased by about 50 million in 2007 as a result of high food prices, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said on the 3rd July addressing a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels.
“Poor countries are feeling the serious impact of soaring food and energy prices,” Dr Diouf said. “We urgently need new and stronger partnerships to address the growing food security problems in poor countries. No single institution or country will be able to resolve this crisis. Donor countries, international institutions, governments of developing countries, civil society and the private sector have an important role to play in the global fight against hunger.”
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