By Richard Johnstone | 2 December 2014

The United Nations has confirmed that 13 nations this year met the Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of citizens facing hunger ahead of the 2015 deadline.

In an update on progress, the UN said that Brazil, Ethiopia, Iran, Malaysia and Mexico were among the countries to have reached the target, which was the Millennium Development Goal 1, first set out 2000.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said the achievement of these countries must lead to increased momentum to end the suffering of 805 million people who still endure chronic undernourishment.

FAO director general José Graziano da Silva said the countries, which also include Cameroon, Gabon, the Gambia and the Philippines, had both ‘demonstrated the will and mobilised the means’.

The countries were recognised for the early achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 1 hunger target – to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015 – or for reaching the more stringent 1996 World Food Summit target to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015.

According to FAO, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Iran, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico and the Philippines have reached the MDG-1 hunger target, while Brazil, Cameroon and Uruguay also achieved the more stretching WFS target.

To date, 63 developing countries have reached the MDG target, and six more are on track to reach it by 2015.

Of the 63 countries which have reached this goal, 25 have also achieved the WFS aim.

To continue this progress, Graziano da Silva said there was a need to ‘improve the quality and efficiency of food systems, promote rural development, increase productivity, raise rural incomes, improve access to food, and strengthen social protection’.