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The latest Global Hunger Index report says the
number of hungry people worldwide has fallen
twenty-five percent since ninety ninety. Last year
the estimate topped one billion people for the first
time. But this year's report says the number of
people not getting enough to eat has fallen to nine
hundred twenty-five million. Still, many experts
worry that hunger rates are not falling fast enough
to meet United Nations goals. One of the first of
the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce the
hunger rate by fifty percent between ninety ninety
and twenty fifteen. Caroline Hurford at the U.N.
World Food Program says the reduction in hunger
rates has slowed in recent years. She says there was
a small decrease in the number of hungry people in
the late nineteen nineties. But then it rose again
during the financial crisis of two thousand seven
and two thousand eight. And then high food prices,
together with high fuel prices caused more problems.
And climate change has made it more difficult to
grow food.The Global Hunger Index is prepared by
three private organizations based in Germany, the
United States and Ireland. The latest report says
twenty-nine countries have levels of hunger that are
considered "alarming." The biggest increases were
found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
report says hunger has risen by more than sixty-five
percent since nineteen ninety because of conflict
and political insecurity. And Caroline Hurford says
Congo is not alone. She says conflict is a huge
problem that affects the ability to grow crops.
People cannot tend their fields if they are always
being chased away by armed rebels.A separate report
says twenty-two countries have suffered from a
hunger and food crisis for at least eight years.
Twenty percent of the world's hungry people live in
these countries, most of which are in Africa. That
report is from the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization and the World Food Program. They say
new policies are needed to deal with these long-term
crises. Peter Smerdon at the World Food Program says
emergency aid must include development assistance.
Both reports were released ahead of World Food Day
October sixteenth. For VOA Special English, I'm
Mario Ritter. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our
reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also
find us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning
English.
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