The Summit is part of a series of international efforts which have sought to respond to the " return of hunger " as a high-profile global issue . While the problem of hunger had always remained a pressing concern for hundreds of millions of people , the previous few decades leading up to 2007 had seen considerable progress in reducing the number of people suffering from the condition . The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 70s had helped propagate improved agricultural technology throughout the world . Progress had been uneven , yet the years that followed generally saw a reduction in the number of people suffering from hunger both as a percentage of the total world population and even in absolute terms . At the turn of the century , estimates from the World Bank suggested that the numbers suffering from chronic hunger had been reduced to close to 800 million , and the Millennium Development Goals included a commitment to achieve a further 50 % reduction by 2015 . By 2008 it was apparent that meeting this goal would be challenging - the numbers suffering from hunger had stopped falling , rising due to the lasting global inflation in the price of food which began in late 2006 . In 2008 , a '' global food crisis '' saw food riots breaking out in dozens of countries , with governments toppled in Haiti and Madagascar . By 2009 , World Bank figures suggested the numbers suffering from chronic hunger had increased to just over a billion . Since the '' L'Aquila Food Security Initiative '' which was launched at the July 2009 G8 Summit , hunger has remained a high-profile issue among the leaders of the advanced economies . 2009 also saw the lunch of the UN 's Scaling Up Nutrition ( SUN ) programme , which has developed into a global movement led principally by developing nations . SUN aims to address the issue of nutrition as well as raw hunger . As a response to the global food crises which began in 2007 , some regions have raised production of drought and pest resistant crops such as Cassava . While good for providing raw calories , the crop has limited nutritional value and some strains even have anti-nutritional factors if not cooked properly . Millions of children who do not receive adequate nutrition are at risk of permanent stunted growth , even if they are eating a normal amount of calories . The second '' global food crisis '' of the 21st century began in late 2010 ; the 2011 East Africa drought followed shortly afterwards . By mid-2012 , the 2012 US drought and a weak Indian monsoon had raised fears of a possible third global food crisis
July 2009 G8 Summit
35th G8 summit
2012 Olympic hunger summit