In 1974, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a pledge at the World Food Conference in Rome: "By 1984, no man, woman, or child would go to bed hungry." Those attending the conference, including many political leaders and ministers of agriculture, came away inspired by this commitment to end hunger.

Three decades later, hunger is still very much part of the social landscape. Today, 1.1 billion of the world's 6 billion people are undernourished and underweight. Hunger and the fear of starvation quite literally shape their lives. A report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) describes hunger: "It is not a transitory condition. It is chronic. It is debilitating. Sometimes, it is deadly. It blights the lives of all who are affected and undermines national economies and development processes ... across much of the developing world."

Kissinger's boldly stated goal gave the impression that there was a plan to eradicate hunger. In fact, there was none.

Kissinger himself had little understanding of the difficult steps needed to realize his goal. Unfortunately, this is still true of most political leaders today.

In 1996, governments again met in Rome at the World Food Summit to review the food prospect. This time delegates from 186 countries adopted a new goal of reducing the number who were hungry by half by 2015. But as in 1974, there was no plan for how to do this, nor little evidence that delegates understood the scale of the effort needed. FAO projections released in late 1999, just three years after the new, modest goal was set, acknowledge that the objective for 2015 is not likely to be reached because "the momentum is too slow and the progress too uneven."

Assertions such as Kissinger's and those of other political leaders may make people feel good, but if they are not grounded in a carefully thought out plan of action and supported by the relevant governments, they ultimately undermine confidence in the public process. This in turn can itself undermine progress.