This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The latest Global ____ (1. ) hunger ____ Index report says the number of hungry people worldwide has ____ (2. ) fallen____ twenty-five percent since nineteen ninety.

Last year the estimate ____ (3. ) top____ one billion for the first time. But this year's ____ (4. ) report____says the number of people not getting enough to eat has fallen to nine hundred twenty-five million.

Still, many experts worry that hunger ____ (5. ) rates____ are not falling fast enough to meet United Nations ____ (6. ) scores ____. One of the first of the ____ (7. )millenium ____ Development Goals is to reduce the hunger rate by fifty percent between nineteen ninety and twenty fifteen.

Caroline Hurford at the U.N. World Food Program says the ____ (8. ) reduction ____ in hunger rates has ____ (9. ) slowed ____ in recent years.

CAROLINE HURFORD: "There has been a ____ (10. ) flight ____ dropping off in the number of hungry people in the late nineteen nineties. But then it ____ (11. ) worry____ again, of course, during the ____ (12. ) financial ____ crisis of two thousand seven-two thousand eight. And then the very high food prices, together with the high ____ (13. ) fewer ____ prices, really knocked everything ____ (14. ) of ____ track again. And then, of course, ____ (15. ) medical ____ change has come in and that's made it more ____ (16. ) difficult ____ to grow food."

The Global Hunger Index is prepared by three ____ (17. ) private ____ organizations based in Germany, the United States and Ireland. The latest

report says ____ (18. ) 29 ____ countries have levels of hunger that are considered "____ (19. ) alarming ____."

The ____ (20. ) biggist ____ increases were found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report says hunger has ____ (21. ) reason ____ by more than sixtyfive percent since nineteen ninety because of conflict and political ____ (22. ) insecurity____.

And Caroline Hurford says Congo is not ____ (23. ) alone ____.

CAROLINE HURFORD: "Clearly conflict is a ____ (24. ) huge ____ problem as far as the actual growing of produce and crops is ____ (25. ) confirm ____. People ____ (26. ) ____ necessarily tend their fields if they are always being chased away ____ (27. ) by ____ armed rebels."

A separate report says twenty-two countries have ____ (28. ) surface ____ from a hunger and food ____ (29. ) crisis ____ for at least eight years. Twenty percent of the world's hungry ____ (30. ) ____ in these countries, most of which are in Africa.

That report is from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program. They say new policies are needed to ____ (31. ) deal ____ with these ____ (32. ) long-term ____crises. Peter Smerdon at the World Food Program says emergency aid must include development ____ (33. ) assistants ____.

PETER SMERDON: "You have to do ____ (34. ) posing ____ things. You have to do both development and emergency assistance to ____ (35. ) keep ____ people alive to reverse the ____ (36. ) stuation ____. Otherwise, you're just going to be stuck in a protracted crisis, and have to keep trying to ____ (37. ) put ____ out the

fire. But you're not actually changing the ____ (38. ) structure ____ of the crisis at all."

Both reports were ____ (39. ) lease ____ ahead of World Food Day this ____ (40. ) pass ____ Saturday.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts, MP3s and pod casts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter.