World leaders were given a unique opportunity to come good on their promises and take action on world hunger. But did they deliver?

Back at July's G8 summit, leaders pledged $20bn to tackle hunger. This is under a quarter of what the UN estimates is needed, but the start of a response to the hunger crisis.

The World Summit on Food Security in Rome was a chance for leaders to move forward. However, they did not deliver on their promises from July.

“You would think that the 20 per cent jump in the number of hungry since 2005 would spur determined and decisive action. But the World Food Summit failed to make any major breakthroughs. And the G8 leaders didn’t even bother turning up. Warm words don’t fill empty stomachs,” said Adriano Campolina, ActionAid’s Regional Director for Latin America.

It wasn’t all bad news though. The summit kicked off with ActionAid and Avaaz shining a light on the global food crisis by lighting up the Coliseum. Hundreds of people - including the media - witnessed the spectacle, sending out a message that urgent action is needed.

President Lula of Brazil also donned HungerFREE boxing gloves to celebrate Brazil coming top of ActionAid’s scorecard report, ranking countries on their efforts to tackle hunger.

Sending a message

Incredibly, in only 7 days, over 180,000 citizens signed a joint ActionAid and Avaaz petition calling on G8 governments to deliver, in full, their $20 billion pledge.

Although Gordon Brown didn’t attend, the campaigning pressure has forced G8 leaders to look at their figures, and opened doors for us to hold them accountable to their promise.

The final summit declaration is long on rhetoric but short on new resources. However, it does place a welcome emphasis on increasing investment in sustainable agriculture and focusing on smallholder farmers and women in particular – an approach we think is vital to ending hunger. All in all the summit had some highs but more lows. There’s still a long way to go in the fight to end global hunger.