Only ten years now remain before the 2015 deadline by which world leaders have pledged to reduce hunger and extreme poverty by half and to make substantial gains in education, health, social equity, environmental sustainability and international solidarity. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005examines progress towards the World Food Summit goals and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), focusing on the critical importance of reducing hunger, not only as the explicit target of MDG 1 but as an essential condition for reaching the other MDGs. The report presents compelling evidence that hunger and malnutrition are major causes of the deprivation and suffering targeted by all of the other MDGs. Progress towards those targets has lagged, particularly in the countries and regions where efforts to reduce hunger have stalled. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005 emphasizes that most, if not all, of the MDG targets can still be reached. But only if efforts are redoubled and refocused. And only by recognizing and acting on two key points: without rapid progress in reducing hunger, achieving all of the other MDGs will be difficult, if not impossible; and the fight to eliminate hunger and reach the other MDGs will be won or lost in the rural areas where the vast majority of the world's hungry people live.