A declaration to be made at next week’s world food summit in Rome will not mention a target to eradicate hunger by 2025 nor a commitment to spend $44 billion a year in agricultural aid.
The two targets were among the most divisive issues at the centre of pre-summit negotiations, according to diplomats close to the matter.
World leaders and top government officials at the summit will simply reaffirm their commitment to the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 — a target that is unlikely to be reached.
According to the draft, they will also commit to “substantially increase the share of ODA (official development assistance) devoted to agriculture and food security based on country-led requests”, without setting a target or a timeframe.
