United Nations, Oct 17: Only a comprehensive international alliance against hunger will help the world to provide food to the 840 million people who now go hungry every day, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said in a message marking the 'World Food Day' today. "Despite the extraordinary technological and agricultural advances of the modern era, the ancient and most basic affliction of hunger is still with us," he said. "Every day, 840 million people do not have enough to eat."
In South Asia, one person in four suffered from hunger, while in Sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion was as high as one in three, he said.
The 1996 world food summit had set a goal of halving that number by 2015, he said.
"As the theme of this year's World Food Day reminds us, the goals will be met only if we forge a true 'international alliance against hunger' - an alliance encompassing governments, international organisations, civil society, the private sector, religious groups and individuals," Annan said.
Large-scale hunger is an affront to human dignity and should shock the conscience of mankind, he said.
Bureau Report