The balance sheet for the last decade is sobering. Hunger and malnutrition are still a harsh reality for more than 800 million people worldwide. In all, 15 percent of the world's people do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs and to lead a healthy and productive life. Adequate, healthy food is not only a matter for humanitarian commitment: it is every individual's basic right, a human right.

Food security has been a key issue in German Development Cooperation for many years. In its Program of Action "Poverty Reduction – a Global Responsibility", published in April 2001, the German Government reaffirmed the high priority of food security.

The causes of hunger are diverse and complex. Contributing factors range from inadequate production bases through to education and health and hygiene. Hunger can be caused by poverty, but is also, and increasingly, the result of conflict or disaster. In German Development Cooperation, various approaches to ensuring food security have proved their worth. They make an important and situation-specific contribution to reducing hunger and malnutrition.