This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The latest Global ____ (1. ) hunger ____ Index report says the number oI hungry
people worldwide has ____ (2. ) fallen____ twenty-Iive percent since nineteen
ninety.

ast year the estimate ____ (3. ) top____ one billion Ior the Iirst time. But this
year's ____ (4. ) report____says the number oI people not getting enough to eat
has Iallen to nine hundred twenty-Iive million.

Still, many experts worry that hunger ____ (5. ) rates____ are not Ialling Iast
enough to meet United Nations ____ (6. ) scores ____. One oI the Iirst oI the ____
(7. )millenium ____ Development Goals is to reduce the hunger rate by IiIty
percent between nineteen ninety and twenty IiIteen.

aroline HurIord at the U.N. World Food Program says the ____ (8. ) reduction
____ in hunger rates has ____ (9. ) slowed ____ in recent years.

AROINE HURFORD: "There has been a ____ (10. ) flight ____ dropping oII
in the number oI hungry people in the late nineteen nineties. But then it ____ (11. )
worry____ again, oI course, during the ____ (12. ) financial ____ crisis oI two
thousand seven-two thousand eight. And then the very high Iood prices, together
with the high ____ (13. ) fewer ____ prices, really knocked everything ____ (14. )
of ____ track again. And then, oI course, ____ (15. ) medical ____ change has
come in and that's made it more ____ (16. ) difficult ____ to grow Iood."

The Global Hunger Index is prepared by three ____ (17. ) private

____ organizations based in Germany, the United States and Ireland. The latest
report says ____ (18. ) 29 ____ countries have levels oI hunger that are considered
"____ (19. ) alarming ____."

The ____ (20. ) biggist ____ increases were Iound in the Democratic Republic oI
ongo. The report says hunger has ____ (21. ) reason ____ by more than sixty-
Iive percent since nineteen ninety because oI conIlict and political ____ (22. )
insecurity____.

And aroline HurIord says ongo is not ____ (23. ) alone ____.

AROINE HURFORD: "learly conIlict is a ____ (24. ) huge ____ problem as

Iar as the actual growing oI produce and crops is ____ (25. ) confirm ____.
People ____ (26. ) ____ necessarily tend their Iields iI they are always being
chased away ____ (27. ) by ____ armed rebels."

A separate report says twenty-two countries have ____ (28. ) surface ____ Irom a
hunger and Iood ____ (29. ) crisis ____ Ior at least eight years. Twenty percent oI
the world's hungry ____ (30. ) ____ in these countries, most oI which are in AIrica.

That report is Irom the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World
Food Program. They say new policies are needed to ____ (31. ) deal ____ with
these ____ (32. ) long-term ____crises. Peter Smerdon at the World Food Program
says emergency aid must include development ____ (33. ) assistants ____.

PETER SMERDON: "You have to do ____ (34. ) posing ____ things. You have to
do both development and emergency assistance to ____ (35. ) keep ____ people
alive to reverse the ____ (36. ) stuation ____. Otherwise, you're just going to be
stuck in a protracted crisis, and have to keep trying to ____ (37. ) put ____ out the
Iire. But you're not actually changing the ____ (38. ) structure ____ oI the crisis at
all."

Both reports were ____ (39. ) lease ____ ahead oI World Food Day this ____ (40.
) pass ____ Saturday.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms.
Transcripts, MP3s and pod casts oI our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm
Mario Ritter.