The report was prepared and released for discussion at the meeting of the Council , FAO's interim governing body, from 23 to 28 November. The percentage of undernourished people in the world is estimated to have dropped slightly over the same period, from 20 to 19 percent, but this has not been sufficient to compensate for population growth. The largest absolute numbers of undernourished people are in Asia, while the largest proportion of the population that is undernourished is in Africa, south of the Sahara, according to the report. In November 1996, heads of state and government from 186 countries gathered in Rome for the World Food Summit and pledged their commitment to reducing by half the number of chronically undernourished people in the world by the year 2015. The increase in the number of hungry people has been caused mainly by lack of progress in reducing poverty in the world.
Data show that hunger and poor economic performance form a vicious circle.
Similarly, income growth has stagnated or declined in most of the countries where more than 30 percent of the people are chronically hungry. The only group of countries within which most have registered gains in per caput income consists of those where less than 20 percent of the population is undernourished. FAO's annual flagship report analyses global and regional developments in food and agriculture, including fisheries and forestry, and examines key issues facing the sector. The 1998 edition of SOFA also covers recent trends in agricultural production, the problem of feeding growing urban populations and the importance of non-farm income activity for rural areas. In a special feature on feeding the cities, it is estimated that by 2005, more than 50 percent of the world's population will be urban, and food insecurity will become an increasingly urban problem.