BRIEF NOTE ON 1BH CAMPAIGN-1

The 1 billion hungry project is a campaign launched worldwide by FAO on 11

May 2010. The campaign is a carefully orchestrated drive to attract one

million signatures to a petition calling on national and international leaders to

move hunger on the top of the political agenda. The signatures are intended

to be symbolically presented during World Food Day observances at UN

headquarters in New York, in the fall of 2010.
Hunger, a quiet crisis, is rarely in the news. Yet current calculations show that

close to one billion people worldwide continue to go hungry on a daily basis.

The UN has agreed the target of reducing the number of hungry people by

half to no more than 420 million by 2015. Clearly, the world needs to step up

its efforts massively if that goal is to be reached. At the current pace, that

target will be reached only by 2150, with hundreds of million deaths as a

result. On reflection, it is a situation that stirs feelings of frustration,

indignation, even anger.
The 1 billion hungry project is a global communication campaign that offers a

constructive outlet for people's feelings of anger and indignation. It is a viral

campaign, existing primarily on the Web and especially in the social media. At

its heart is a virtual counter – housed on the 1billionhungry Web site – which

ticks over every time a new name is added to the petition. “Signatures” take

different forms – clicks on the petition itself, SMS messages in selected

markets, physical signatures collected at live events.

World leaders gathered in L'Aquila in July 2009 have signed a Joint Statement

on Food Security, which was endorsed at the World Summit of Food Security

held in Rome in November 2009. They have agreed on five principles to

reduce hunger, namely: increase investment in agriculture through country

owned plans; improve coordination at national, regional and global levels to

improve both governance and allocation of resources; strive a twin-track

approach to food security consisting of direct action to immediately tackle

hunger for the most vulnerable as well as medium and long-term sustainable

programmes to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty; ensure a

strong role for multilateral system; ensure sustained and substantial

commitment by all partners to investment in agriculture and food security and

nutrition.
FAO's role is to speak for the hungry. We believe we can't fight

hunger without the hungry being involved. The 1 Billion Hungry

campaign seeks to amplify the voice of the hungry and to finally

“blow the whistle” – letting the world know that enough is enough,

and demanding an end to hunger. No one sector in a national economy,

no single ministry or department can successfully attack food insecurity –

lasting solutions are complex and require commitment at the highest political

level. 1billion hungry campaign will serve as a strong reminder to world

leaders to deliver what has been promised and to strengthen the hand of

political leaders who want to do the right thing and end hunger in their

countries and in the world.
1 million signatures – in one form or another – will be a significant indication

that people are pushing for action towards elimination of chronic hunger.

Let's “blow the whistle” and demand end of hunger, let's sign the petition

now.