Call to end hunger and poverty on eve of G-8 summit

By unanimous consent, the United States Senate resolved on Wednesday to make reducing hunger and poverty in Africa a foreign policy priority. The “Africa: Hunger to Harvest: A Decade of Support for Sub-Saharan Africa” resolution calls on the US government to spend US $1 billion dollars annually on long-term poverty-focused development assistance to Africa. In a press statement, the Washington-based anti-hunger group, Bread for the World, said the unanimous adoption of the resolution should “send a clear signal to the White House on the eve of the G-8 summit”. Thanking the leadership shown by Senators Chuck Hagel and Patrick Leahy, who sponsored the resolution, the Reverend David Beckman, president of Bread for the World said, “The US Senate is now on record in support of significant new development assistance for Africa. It’s time for the Congressional leadership and President Bush to begin delivering on that pledge.” The two-day G-8 summit, which opens in Genoa on Saturday, will be attended by US President George W. Bush, as well as leaders of six other major industrialised countries, plus Russia. The main agenda is expected to focus on building confidence in a world economy that some economists fear may be slipping into recession. But the leaders congregating in Genoa will also be seeking to do more to alleviate the debts of the world’s poorest countries, many of them in Africa, and to contribute to the UN drive against infectious diseases such as AIDS, TB and malaria. There will also be efforts made to reform multilateral development banks like the World Bank. Wednesday’s “hunger to harvest” resolution calls for significant new development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa until hunger in the region is cut in half, an objective world leaders meeting at 1996 World Food Summit vowed to achieve by 2015. US aid programmes would focus on proven areas like agriculture, health, education, small business development and debt-relief, says Bread for the World. The proposals also call on President Bush to report back to Congress with five- and 10-year plans for increasing development assistance and reducing hunger in Africa. According to Bread for the World, shortly before the Senate debate, senator Hagel received a personal note from Secretary of State Colin Powell indicating that President Bush would be discussing the goals of the resolution at the G-8 summit in Genoa. They quote Powell as saying global poverty alleviation will be a “prime focus” of Bush during the Genoa conference. Despite advances in other parts of the developing world, hunger and poverty are increasing in sub-Saharan Africa, say Bread for the World. Approximately 186 million people are chronically undernourished (one out of three) and 291 million people live on less than US $1 a day. The Hagel-Leahy “hunger to harvest” proposal cites the calculation that the goal of reducing world hunger in half by 2015, as agreed at the World Food Summit five years ago, is achievable through an international increase of US $4 billion annually in poverty-focused development assistance. The US share of the effort would be US $1 billion a year. Accelerating progress towards the goals set by the World Food Summit will also be a major theme of UN Food and Agriculture executive-director, Jacques Diouf, when he travels to Genoa to meet G-8 leaders over the weekend. Speaking at a news conference in Rome on Thursday, Diouf called on all concerned, particularly the G-8 countries, to contribute to a trust fund for food security with an initial amount of US $500 million to support agriculture in developing countries. Diouf underlined that the amount requested was not large when seen in relation to the amount spent on boosting agricultural production in the developed world. He observed that total lending to agriculture and rural development by the World Bank and regional financial institutions amounted to US $3.5 billion in 1999, while OECD countries spent around US $361 billion over the same period on supporting their farmers. “The poor and the developing countries are tired of declarations that are not followed by action. Resources from donors and major financial institutions have been dwindling over the last five years. How can we achieve the World Food Summit goal with fewer resources?” asked Diouf, adding that more resources and mechanisms such as the trust fund, were needed “to help poor countries help themselves”. With increased resources, “FAO will assist governments in creating a policy environment favourable to increased investment in agriculture,” Diouf promised.