On a scale of zero to ten, global efforts to reduce hunger scored only three, according to the Global Governance Initiative's 2005 annual report. Efforts to diminish poverty earned a rating of four.

The report on the progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was prepared for the World Economic Forum, and presented at its meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 25. A report panel led by Sartaj Aziz, former finance and foreign minister of Pakistan, and Joachim von Braun, IFPRI director general, assessed global progress in the fight against hunger and poverty. The low scores given by the panel reflected the fact that the world is not on track to meet the World Food Summit goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 and the MDG of reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollara day.

"Agriculture has a tremendously important role to play in meeting these goals. Half of the world's hungry people live in farm households, and three quarters of the world's poor live in rural areas," says von Braun. "To come anywhere near reaching the goals by 2015, the year 2005 must see a quantum leap in concerted action."

Von Braun also delivered a presentation on international trade at the Davos meeting. He called for action in three key areas so that the World Trade Organization's Doha round of negotiations can benefit poor farmers:

• OECD countries must improve access to their markets,
• developing countries must avoid protectionism, and
• wealthy nations should provide more assistance to connect poor farmers to markets.

"The battle is on to see whether a coalition for protection and subsidies comes together to oppose a strong Doha outcome, or whether a different coalition prevails to achieve real trade liberalization. The wellbeing of many of the world's poor depends on overcoming this conflict," says von Braun.