security around the world, is perhaps the most comprehensive and ambitious
review undertaken since the UN was set up in 1945 (UN, 2004). A similar review is
now needed of the structure of the UN system as a whole to align this sprawling,
unfocused organization to focus on attacking the scourge of hunger and poverty
through the implemention of the MDGs. In addition, an appraisal of the inter-
connections between the UN system and other major international institutions
and NGOs concerned and involved in food security issues is required so that their
activities can have compounded benefit. Without this, much of the seminal work
of the UN and international bodies and institutions will be inconclusive as none
of them alone has the competence and the capacity to address all the interre-
lated concerns that affect the achievement of food security. The reforms of the
UN system introduced by the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in 1997, which he
described as `the most extensive and far-reaching' in the history of the UN system
for `preparing the United Nations to meet the major challenges and needs of the
world community for the 21
programmes, they did not address such system-wide problems as co-ordination
and leadership of the UN specialized agencies and the policy and operational
rift between the Bretton Woods institutions and the rest of the UN system as
well as fundamental changes in process of appointing the UN secretary-general
and providing adequate and stable resources for the UN system to carry out the
ever-increasing tasks that are required successfully (Shaw, 1997).
where responsibility lies first and foremost with national governments, develop-
ment strategies should be formulated with clearly defined priorities for achieving
the MDGs and for improving institutional and administrative capacities and to
foster co-ordinated management of national action and international support. The
international community can effectively support developing countries' efforts by
adjusting their own management and co-ordinating procedures to the needs of
developing countries, including improvements in their internal co-ordination of
action within donor agencies, and providing management support and training to
improve the capacities of developing countries to plan and manage their national
policies and programmes and external aid.
of achievement will have wide negative global consequences. This history has
shown that solution of the food and nutrition security problem lies not only
in the food and agricultural sphere but in other economic and social sectors,
and in the maintenance of peace and security. Overcoming food and nutrition
insecurity will require cohesive global political will and resources. To add to the
complexity, world food and nutrition security is not a separate issue but is bound
up with a series of impending and interlocking crises including food supplies, water