Two hundred million people around the world have escaped hunger due in large part to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations reported Wednesday.
Bread for the World has long supported the MDGs as a way to help the world’s poor move out of a cycle of hunger and poverty.
The report shows that the number of hungry people has declined from about one billion in 1990 to about 795 million today, taking into account increased populations. Out of the 129 nations monitored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 72 achieved the target of halving the percentages of hungry people outlined in the MDGs, according to the United Nations’ annual hunger report, published by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Food Program.
“Global leaders’ support of the MDGs, in order to help their brothers and sisters, is a testament of God’s love for us,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “The goals have focused global attention on hunger and extreme poverty, and we are seeing the results of increased investments in agriculture, food security, and nutrition.”
The MDGs are eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The goals are to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce infant mortality rate, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.
“Countries in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have made pronounced progress in eradicating hunger. It is time the United States got serious about hunger,” Beckmann said. “As a new set of goals are drafted, countries like the United States have to participate in their implementation in order to ensure that the post-2015 development agenda provides an opportunity to promote equity and equitable growth in a way that is truly universal.”
The MDGs will be replaced with a new set of goals, Sustainable Development Goals, this September with an end goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
