Halving Hunger through "Business as Unusual"

A smarter, more innovative, better focused, and cost-effective approach to reducing hunger - this is what Meeting the First Millennium Development Goal through "Business as Unusual" proposes. The publication released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), says that the goal of "halving hunger by 2015 can still be achieved, but business as usual will not be enough."

Author Shenggen Fan forwards five elements of this approach:

• Invest in two core pillars: agriculture and social protection
• Bring in new players such as the private sector, philanthropic organizations, and emerging economy donors
• Design policies using evidence and experiments
• Walk the talk by meeting commitments to policies and investments for enhancing food security

In addition, three reforms can be done to improve the global food governance system: (1) improve existing institutions and create an umbrella structure for food and agriculture; (2) form government-to-government systems for decision making on agriculture, food and nutrition; and (3) explicitly engage the new players in the global food system together with national governments in new international organizations and agreements.

Visit http://www.ifpri.org/publication/halving-hunger to view a PDF file of the report.