The talks in Caracas, Venezuela, mark the beginning of a week of meetings on the issue, leading up to a three-day UN food crisis summit in Rome on Tuesday.
According to the World Bank, global food prices have risen by 83% over the past three years.
The lender has announced a package of food grants totalling $1.2bn (£608m).
An influential report on Thursday warned that higher food prices might be here to stay as demand from developing countries and production costs rose.
Prices would fall, but only gradually, the report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said.
Food grants
The week of talks begins in Caracas. The BBC's James Ingham in the Venezuelan capital says that like much of the rest of the developing world, Latin America's poor have not escaped from the increased food prices.
 Tajikistan is one of the countries identified by the UN as a priority |
While some countries are working together to tackle the crisis, there has been no united response and the meeting will aim to correct that, he says.
At a recent summit held with European leaders, heads of state pledged to strengthen trade relations.
However, an alternative "people's summit" held by social movements said liberalisation and deregulation were the principal causes of poverty.
Some of the region's socialist countries share that view and are focusing on reducing their reliance on imports, creating an agricultural development fund to help achieve this.
In preparation for the UN-sponsored food crisis summit in Rome next week, the World Bank said there was "the need for a clear action plan".
As part of its package it is setting aside grants worth a total of $200m for "high-priority" countries most at risk from acute hunger.
The World Bank says 100 million people could be impoverished by the rising cost and scarcer availability of food.
Fuel protests
Thursday's joint report by the UN and OECD believes the current price spike is higher than previous records, partly due to bad weather ruining crops.
 Fishermen in France and other EU states are angry at their fuel costs |
But factors such as rising biofuel demand and speculation will keep future costs high, it adds.
Fuel prices have also been rising dramatically and the European Union braced for fresh strikes by fishermen on Friday.
Trade unions say the cost of diesel oil has become prohibitively high and that many fishermen are being forced to give up a lifelong profession.
The EU's biggest producer of fish is Spain, where a demonstration will be staged in the capital Madrid.
Fishermen nationwide are being asked to take part in an indefinite strike.
The price of diesel oil has risen by more than 300% over the past five years while, according to the unions, the wholesale price of fish has remained static for 20 years.
The industrial action in Spain is expected to be mirrored by strikes in Portugal, Italy and Belgium.
In France, fishermen have been protesting for weeks - although some have now returned to work.
The European Commission has promised immediate help to restructure Europe's fishing industry but says subsidies to offset rising fuel costs would be illegal.
