This is a measure of the per person food deficit of the undernourished population within each country. Measured in kilocalories, it aims to assess just how empty people's plates are each day. FAO estimates that the number of hungry people in developing countries was declining by 8 million a year in the first half of the 1990s. But if we are to fulfil the pledge made at the 1996 World Food Summit to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015, that number must reach 20 million a year.
Some progress is on the horizon, however.
FAO projections to 2015 suggest that, due to slowing population growth and increases in productivity and income, more people will escape the prison of hunger. But hungry people cannot wait another 15 years. In a world enjoying record wealth, it is a moral imperative to ensure that every person on the planet realizes their right to be free from hunger.