Feeding the world in the coming decades requires improvements in investment, technology and institutions

The world is food secure at the global level, yet nearly 800 million are food insecure. "Business as usual" is not going to bring us close to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of the population consuming less than the minimum energy requirement. So what has to change? The three papers in this session offer clues in three broad areas: (a) increased investment-by developing and developed countries-in public goods such as agricultural research, education, and clean water, (b) technologies to boost agricultural productivity for the poor and institutions that guide the diffusion and application of technology that need to be developed and (c) national-level institutions and governance structures to be strengthened and held accountable for protecting and respecting human rights, for providing the right types of national-level public goods to those that most need them and for preserving peace and stability.