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This article is a discussion of the responsibility shared by individual states and the international community to alleviate the monolithic scourge of hunger. Today more than 852 million people suffer from chronic hunger worldwide, and although the common human right to food has long been recognized, the gap between resolutions to fight hunger and poverty, and the actions actually taken, has grown ever wider. Each year, the volume of resources dedicated to that goal diminishes, while the number and proportion of hungry people continue to rise. One of the main Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of people that suffer from hunger between 1995 and 2015; significant advancement of that goal has yet to occur. For this goal to be achieved, the number of hungry people will have to be reduced by 29 million per year from now until 2015, a figure that is 12 % higher than the current international progress. W. A. Butler

One of the most terrible problems facing the world today is food security, with more than 853 million people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide. Though the right not to suffer in hunger has long been recognized, there has been a wide gap between resolutions made around the world to fight hunger and poverty, and the actions actually taken to ameliorate the situation. Each year, the volume of resources dedicated to that goal diminishes, while the number and proportion of hungry people continue to rise. Niger, the second poorest country in the world, is an exceptionally clear example of the complexities of the concept of food crises. One of the key concepts in the struggle against hunger is that of Food Security. Food security is composed of three major components: Food Availability, defined as the amount of food physically present in the country, Food Access, which refers to the amount of food per household that can be acquired from all possible sources of production and income, and Food Utilization, or a household's use of food and the ability of each individual to metabolize the nutrients needed for survival. W. A. Butler