FAO’s latest estimates of hunger around the world offer striking evidence that progress toward the World Food Summit (WFS) goal is possible. They also show conclusively that without redoubled national and global commitment the goal of reducing the number of hungry people by half by the year 2015 will not be reached. A number of countries in all developing regions have succeeded in reducing hunger steadily and significantly since the World Food Summit baseline period of 1990–1992. Unfortunately, however, these countries are more the exception than the rule. Across the developing world as a whole, an estimated 798 million people were undernourished in 1999–2001, only 19 million less than during the WFS baseline period. Worse yet, during the most recent four-year period for which data are available, the estimated number of undernourished people in developing countries did not decrease at all. In fact, it increased by 4.5 million per year. This fifth edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World details recent trends in developing countries and countries in transition. It also offers an analysis of factors that have contributed to progress and setbacks in efforts to reach the WFS goal. Other articles examine the impact on food security of factors as diverse as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, improved management of water resources and increasing integration of developing countries into international markets and trade agreements. The State of Food Insecurity in the World highlights encouraging signs that many countries have recognized the persistence of hunger not as grounds for despair but as an urgent call to action. A number of countries have launched aggressive campaigns to achieve the WFS goal within their own borders. Several have committed themselves to eradicating hunger entirely. Their strategies for achieving that goal include key elements of a twin-track approach that combines immediate interventions to give hungry people access to food with development initiatives to increase employment, incomes and food production in impoverished communities. These countries are showing the way. With comparable commitment at a world scale, the WFS goal is still within reach.