On the eve of the Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, ActionAid activists took to the streets to highlight the plight of women smallholder farmers.

Meredith Alexander, Head of Policy at ActionAid, said:

"Today almost a billion people won’t have enough to eat. Their chance of a better future rests on the UN summit that world leaders have come to New York to attend. If they can find the political will to act, they could throw a life line to the world’s hungry, who with the right support can feed themselves. For example, smallholder farmers in Malawi were given help to buy seeds and tools. As a result, the number of people reliant on food handouts fell dramatically from 4.5 million to just 150,000 in just five years.

“Lack of food really is a matter of life and death. Hunger will contribute to the deaths of 100,000 mothers this year alone. The eyes of the world will be on New York to see if  leaders will rise to the challenge and offer solutions equal to the size of this very real problem."