A recent United Nations Department of Food and Agriculture Organisation or FOA report discusses the issue of Food Insecurity in the World. And it makes for sad reading. Close on 1 billion world citizens, or 20% of the population, are hungry.

It seems the cause of this is the increase in food prices. Poor households, urban and rural, are net buyers of food and have been hit the hardest by the increase in food prices. Landless people and female-headed households are the most vulnerable within this group.

Food prices have increased by 10% over 2007′s prices and poor households are unable to afford food on a regular basis. What will add to this desperate state will be the recession the global community is going through at the moment. It will mean there will be less money available for food aid.

Whatever happened to the first goal that of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger as set down by the UNDP in its Millennium Development Goals? The target was to reduce poverty by 2015, and in a meaningful way. It seems, checking the progress made thus far on the UNDP website that Asia seems to be winning some of the battle whereas sub-Sahara Africa is worse off than at the beginning of the MDG.

The success, if it were achieved, to cut by half the proportion of people living on less than $1 per day would be a hollow one, if the cost of food increases by more than the increase in average daily earnings. The goal post is constantly being shifted.

So as we say good-bye to this very turbulent 2008 and look forward to the next year with a fair amount of trepidation, let’s not forget that there are mega millions of people so much worse off than we are. Let’s be grateful for what we have and include in our thinking and actions some effort directed at alleviating hunger.