The World Food Summit (FAO, 13-17 November 1996) was a landmark event in the fight against food insecurity. The Summit brought together nearly 10,000 participants from 185 countries and the European Community to renew global commitment at the highest political level to eliminating hunger and malnutrition and to achieve food security for all.
The Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action adopted at the close of the Summit has since then provided a framework for ongoing efforts to eradicate hunger, with an immediate view to reducing by half the number of undernourished people by no later than the year 2015.
The challenge in World Food Summit follow-up is to ensure that the measures set out in the Summit's Plan of Action are translated into practical action.
The Rome Declaration sets forth seven commitments which lay the basis for achieving sustainable food security for all and the Plan of Action spells out the objectives and actions relevant for practical implementation of these seven commitments. Commitment Seven, in particular, stresses that the focus of action lies at the country level, where governments have the main responsibility, involving all actors, to create the economic and political environment within which action can be taken to assure the food security of their citizens.
The ACC Network is proving a dynamic tool for effective World Food Summit follow-up as it stimulates coordinated action by main development partners at the country level to achieve food security.
A large number of developed and developing countries have already started to prepare national plans of action involving all sectors of society. The World Food Summit Plan of Action also calls upon governments to launch national "Food for All" campaigns, marshalling all sectors of civil society and their resources to help implement the measures identified. The first stage of these campaigns is for countries to set up a national forum comprising NGOs and civil society (including universities, research institutes, parliamentarians, women's and youth groups, the media and other groups), which may form part constituencies for food and food security issues.
The importance of strong regional and international cooperation in the effective implementation of the Plan of Action is also underlined. The priority given to supporting and stimulating country-level activities is one of the fundamental principles behind arrangements for cooperation among United Nations organizations in the follow-up to the Summit.