Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 180

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The Millennium Summit
at the United Nations
in 2000, when and
where the Millennium
Development Goals
were launched. Tarja
Halonen, president of
Finland and co-chair of
the Millennium Summit,
addresses the assembly.

170?Conclusion

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tion of myriad volunteers, and significant financial resources. Collectively, the government
and private organizations spent about $115 billion fighting hunger in 2011. That’s $315 million—about $330 for each hungry family—every single day.
There’s so much first-rate work being done to understand and address hunger in America,
and the richest country in the world
certainly lacks neither money nor
food. We need to figure out how to
pull this work together such that
it equals more than the sum of its
parts.
Measure of America’s aim is to
rethink the ways in which we as
a society understand and measure disadvantage, with a view
to reframing the debate and reengaging Americans in the search
for lasting solutions. One way we
do this is by using numbers to tell
the story of what’s going on with
everyday Americans. Measure of
America’s American Human Development Index is the cornerstone of
this work. Another is to highlight
what’s working, not just in the
United States but also around the world, to improve well-being and expand opportunity.
In September 2000, leaders from 189 countries met at the United Nations and agreed
to work jointly toward eight measurable, time-bound goals to reduce global poverty—goals
such as halving the percentage of people who are undernourished, reaching 100 percent
elementary school enrollment, and providing access to HIV/AIDS treatment for everyone
who needs it. They were called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDG rallying cry did not, of course, solve all of the world’s problems, but it spurred
tremendous action and results. The global target to cut the proportion of people living in
extreme poverty by half was reached ahead of the 2015 deadline, as were goals on access to
safe water, fewer malaria deaths, and better living conditions for slum dwellers. In addition,
the world is on track to meet the hunger and tuberculosis targets.
The MDGs were remarkably powerful and successful for many reasons. They helped
focus governments and NGOs on achieving a limited set of clear objectives in areas that
were central to human well-being, and they made it hard for those who preferred to look
the other way to continue denying the existence of severe human deprivation. They galvanized collaboration and brought home the realization that duplication and competition
among similar organizations would not get the world across the finish line. They created a
more predictable environment in which recipient governments and NGOs weren’t pulled
this way and that by constantly shifting donor priorities, making longer-term planning and
programming possible. And most importantly, the MDG process put in place a system of
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