ActionAid Activists from across Europe are converging on Luxembourg to call on EU Foreign Ministers to get the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back on track.

Hunger (MDG1) is an urgent and serious problem - it's vital that the EU stops using the financial crisis as an excuse for not tackling hunger and poverty.

MDG1: The Issues

MDG 1 seeks to halve hunger by 2015. But if current trends continue, more than 1.5 billion people will be hungry by then. This means 650 million more people will have been pushed into hunger since the target was set.

• We know the solutions to hunger - investing in smallholder farmers. A global breakthrough package targeted at smallholders will deliver real wins on hunger.
• But we still need the money – the EU must commit its fair share of the money needed to reach this goal. ^₁
• The money also has to be spent effectively: back in April, the EU member states, themselves, emphasized the role of supporting smallholders as key to ending hunger. Now is the time for their decisions to reflect these good sentiments in a concrete way: they have to put up the money so the world's poor people have something to put in their stomachs.

In Luxembourg

Our ActionAid Activistas are going to be there and are certainly going to be visible! We will be lining the roads to the conference centre and outside the building itself with our giant hourglass, watches and banners ("5 years to halve hunger - don't let the chance slip away", "free the hungry billion").

Hunger is not caused by nature, it’s a political choice. It is manmade. Our governments cannot go back on the promises they made ten years ago; time is running out.

• Check out our Activista network MyActivista.org to find out the latest news and how you can become involved!
• Find out more about what causes hunger and what we can do to end it in our Issues section
• Real lives: Investment in small scale, sustainable agriculture can change a community on "Thabo's Story"

1. The Food and Agriculture Organization are calling for the EU to set aside US$40 billion per annum between now and 2015 to tackle hunger.  In addition it is recognized that developing countries need to allocate at least 10% of their budgets to agriculture.