As a UN world food delegation talks to the Government today about foreign aid, James Morris writes about the 850 million people relying on such support
'The plight of the world's hungry is in danger of becoming a worn-out cliché for far too many people in the world we live in.
Sadly, when we speak of "the hungry in Africa", eyes are more likely to glaze over than light up with interest and concern.
But for all their familiarity, the facts behind the "cliché" of hunger are still shocking.
More than 850 million people around the world know what it's like to go hungry; almost half of the world's hungry are children; and for all the effort that has been put into reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the aim of halving the proportion of hungry people around the world by 2015 looks as distant as ever.
While familiarity with the problem may breed contempt for many, those of us who work in the humanitarian community remain energised by the titanic scale of the struggle we face to meet the needs of the hungry and the poor.
The only thing we are too familiar with is the map of global hunger.
It presents us with a landscape where the colours rarely change. While there may occasionally be temporary respite for some who live in the hunger zones, they can never be entirely certain that food shortages and crop failure will not return to haunt them in years to come.
The red zones still burn in swathes across sub-Saharan Africa, while central America and parts of south and east Asia continue to flare brightly as we survey the regions where the hungry live.
In the five years I have spent working for the World Food Programme, I have trodden a familiar path across this map of hunger, from a drought-stricken southern Africa region where HIV infection has decimated the lives of young farmers and strangled agricultural production, to the conflict zones of Sudan where bitter rivalry born of friction between people of different tribes, ethnicity and faith has led to the displacement of huge populations on a catastrophic scale.
In Asia, I have witnessed the horrific after-effects of the tsunami, and the crippling impact of malnutrition on children growing up in North Korea.
I have tried to console the victims of hurricane damage in central America, and listened to those displaced by conflict in Colombia.
But amid all the tragedy, there has been hope. There is the hope borne of the eternal optimism of the poor, who continue to dream of better lives. And there is also the hope that comes from the generosity of donor governments - such as that in Ireland - who have offered consistent support to the work of the World Food Programme.
Against the backdrop of a world where natural disasters are on the increase, the Irish Government has played a key role by making a firm pledge to reach the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of its gross national income on official aid. And what is more, it intends to do that well ahead of the target date of 2015.
There is far less danger of hunger becoming a cliché for the people of Ireland. Your history has bequeathed an empathy with those who suffer through lack of food. The fact that your Government is now spending €170 for every Irish man, woman and child to change the lives of the poor and the marginalised in the developing world, is a tribute to Ireland's humanitarian role.
Your Government has set an example that should inspire the world, for it is only through a truly global push that we can hope to end this problem once and for all. Today, despite the generosity of the Irish Government, we still face awful choices on the ground.
Twice this year, I have had to take a decision on whether to cut rations for millions of Sudanese.
In May, a lack of funds meant that WFP had to reduce rations in the troubled Darfur region - in effect placing those who have lost their homes through war on a starvation diet. Funding shortages in August meant a similar decision was in prospect for all of WFP's 6.1 million beneficiaries across Sudan.
Other neglected emergencies face a similar fate. At the very time that the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are embracing democracy for the first time in their troubled history, WFP has had to cut back deliveries of food to the troubled eastern region of the country. And when we stop flying the food in, it has a knock-on effect with our humanitarian partners, forcing non-governmental agencies to halt their work too.
These are decisions that affect real people living in desperate conditions: young children, pregnant mothers and refugees. For them, hunger is not a cliché, but a matter of life and death.
• James Morris is executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme