Documents and Tools

Meeting the Millennium Development Goals - Financing for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development - Contribution by FAO, IFAD and WFP

Actions and initiatives to achieve the MDGs need to be adequately funded through a combination of public and private resources. FAO, IFAD and WFP consider this High Level Dialogue on Financing for Development an important occasion to take stock of progress achieved in providing the necessary funds and modalities for the achievement of the MDGs.

FAO’s role on MDGs - Basic information

Since the World Food Summit (WFS), FAO has undertaken a number of steps to monitor regularly progress in halving the number of hungry and has supported countries and regions with implementation of the WFS Plan of Action. The link below provides information on the initiatives and activities that have direct relevance to the three basic initiatives of the proposed UN strategy for achieving the MDGs: Monitoring, Analysis and a public outreach Campaign.

Millennium Development Goals Report

This report is based on a master set of data that has been compiled by an Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators led by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, in response to the wishes of the General Assembly for periodic assessment of progress towards the MDGs.

FAO and the Challenge of the Millenium Dvelopment Goals – The Road Ahead

This Discussion Paper was prepred for the Special event on “Ïmpacts of Conflicts and Governance on Food Security and FAO’s Role and Adaptation for Achieving of the MDG’s”, on the occasion of the 31st Committee on Food Security held in May 2005 at FAO headquarters.

Investing in Development – A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals

This report recommends the way forward to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. “Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals” brought together the core recommendations of the UN Millenium Project .

UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also promoting basic human rights for each person on to have access to health, education, shelter, and security.

2005 World Summit Outcome

The Summit Outcome represents a historic opportunity to bring about important programmatic and management changes and challenges to the United Nations. The Summit Outcome as a whole provides a comprehensive policy guidance for the ongoing work of the Secretariat and the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes.

UNDP/UNEP Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI)

UNDP and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have forged a global partnership, the UNDP/UNEP Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI), that aims to scale-up investment and capacity development support for mainstreaming environment in country-led processes to achieve the MDGs, with a principle focus on MDG-based poverty reduction strategies.

Worldwide Initiatives

World Food Summit

In 1996, the World Food Summit was called in response to the continued existence of widespread undernutrition and growing concern about the capacity of agriculture to meet future food needs. In 1974, governments attending the World Food Conference had proclaimed that "every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop their physical and mental faculties." The Conference had set as its goal the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition within a decade. For many reasons, among them failures in policy making and funding, that goal had not been met. FAO estimated that unless progress was accelerated, there could still be some 680 million hungry people in the world by the year 2010, more than 250 million of whom would be in sub-Saharan Africa.

World Food Summit: five years later

The World Food Summit: five years later, which ended 13 June 2002, called for an international alliance to accelerate action to reduce world hunger. It also unanimously adopted a declaration calling on the international community to fulfil the earlier pledge to cut the number of hungry people to about 400 million by 2015. This pledge was made at the original World Food Summit in 1996 - the largest-ever global gathering of leaders to address hunger and food security - and progress towards it remained disappointingly slow.

World Food Day

World Food Day is observed every year on 16 October -- the anniversary of the founding of FAO on 16 October 1945 -- to promote broader public awareness of the problem of global hunger and malnutrition. Celebrations marking World Food Day take place in more than 150 countries and events vary from exhibitions and essay contests to agricultural fairs and on-farm demonstrations.

2005 World Summit

The 2005 World Summit, to be held 14-16 September, will also focus on overhaul of the Organization itself, in order to make it more effective and efficient in its work throughout the world. More than 170 Heads of State and Government have signaled their intention to attend, making it almost certain to be the largest gathering ever of world leaders.

Monitoring Progress since the World Food summit Website

FAO helps countries to make progress toward the World Food Summit (WFS) goal of reducing the number of hungry people by half by 2015. It also works toward the Millennium Development Goals.

UN Millennium Project

The UN Millennium Project is an independent advisory body commissioned by the UN Secretary-General to propose the best strategies for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Under the Millenium Project, the Hunger Task Force has carried out an initial diagnosis to identify hunger 'hotspots' and to get a better sense of who and where are the hungry.

UNEP/UNDP Poverty-Environment Partnership (PEP)

The Poverty-Environment Partnership (PEP) is a network of more than 30 international development and environment agencies that launched the ‘Environment for the MDGs’ initiative to galvanize support for the significant scaling up of worldwide investment in environmental management to help win the fight against poverty and achieve the MDGs.

Related Websites

International Alliance Against Hunger

The International Alliance Against Hunger is a voluntary partnership for combining the strengths of local, national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations, service and religious organizations, the private sector and concerned individuals with the common mission of working to eradicate hunger. Participants recognize that a united effort can present a much more powerful message to political, social and economic leaders who make decisions on advocacy, resource mobilization and development strategies.

World Summit on Sustainable Development

Johannesburg Summit 2002 – the World Summit on Sustainable Development – brought together tens of thousands of participants, including heads of State and Government, national delegates and leaders from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses and other major groups to focus the world's attention and direct action toward meeting difficult challenges, including improving people's lives and conserving our natural resources in a world that is growing in population, with ever-increasing demands for food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services and economic security.

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 addresses the pressing problems of today and also aims at preparing the world for the challenges of the next century. It reflects a global consensus and political commitment at the highest level on development and environment cooperation. Its successful implementation is first and foremost the responsibility of Governments.

United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service

This website serves as a portal to background materials, ongoing analysis and research, and campaign initiatives undertaken at a national, regional, and international level to address the MDGs. The work showcased originates from the United Nations, its agencies and programmes, intergovernmental organizations, national governments, and civil society. The portal also offers space for those interested to connect with ongoing initiatives and organizations working towards the achievement of the 2015 targets.