Home USA National G-8 Countries Embrace Mission to Combat Chronic Hunger

G-8 Countries Embrace Mission to Combat Chronic Hunger

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Nearly a billion people worldwide suffering from chronic hunger, the United States of America today underscored that the G-8 countries are committed to end poverty and fight food insecurity.

In her remarks today at symposium on global fight for food security in DC , US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said billions of dollars have been pledged by the world’s largest economies, and those pledges are being met to meet agenda of food security.

“The G-8 has embraced this mission. So has the World Bank and the African Union.” -Ms. Clinton

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A Somali man at a UNsupported feeding centre operated by the International Association Against Hunger.

UN Photo/Milton Grant

She states that 30 African nations are creating national agricultural investment plans and revising their budgets to make agriculture a leading priority.

In the United States, the government has its own global food security initiative. Feed the Future is at the forefront of US global development agenda.

The Administration took on food security right out of the box because the facts were so compelling, Ms. Clinton added.

She reports that by the year 2050, the global population will climb to 9 billion, and the world will need to produce 70 percent more food than we do today just to feed everyone; 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural settings and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Ms. Clinton notes that there are many other facts, the world we can decrease chronic hunger today.

“We can build an ample food supply for tomorrow, we can drive economic growth in places where poverty is persistent, and we can have better futures for men, women, and children.” -Ms. Clinton

She stresses that states are seeking to do through investments in global agriculture is not just to solve the problem of hunger, they also want to solve the problem of extreme poverty.

And agriculture, may be the best intervention point to do that, she added.

She notes that development dollars spent on agriculture have the greatest impact on poverty reduction, more than money spent in any other sector.

If the world wants to make big gains in the fight against poverty, agriculture is the best way to do that, she stressed.

“And there is no place that that is more true than in Africa, where there is such great potential for gains in agricultural productivity.” -Ms. Clinton

By cooperation, African governments, donors, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society can close the productivity gap and feed many more people, Ms. Clinton underlined.

She cites that the first is a centerpiece of the symposium: partnering with the private sector.

She pointed out that as President Obama has said, the New Alliance includes a major push to mobilize more private sector investment and involvement.

Private investment has become invaluable to development across the board, Ms. Clinton stressed.

And beyond investment, the private sector has a great deal to offer in terms of skills and expertise, she added.

She notes that African countries are taking the lead on cultivating private sector involvement.

The African countriess are reforming their policies to make their economies and agricultural sectors more attractive for both domestic and international investment and private sector activity, Ms. Clinton cited.

She notes that it wasn’t long ago that a symposium on food security would have drawn a very different crowd, because for years, passionate and persistent advocates made the case that this issue needed to be on the development agenda of every nation.

“Well, the United States listened, the G-8 countries listened, and now it’s a signature issue.” -Ms. Clinton

Yesterday at G8 Summit, President Barack Obama has called on world leaders to make predictable, measurable funding and policy commitments that will help 50 million people lift themselves out of poverty through sustainable, small-scale agriculture by 2015.

Almost a billion people on this planet — one in seven — are hungry. The kind of hunger that pushes men to leave their families in search for work, forces mothers to choose between food and medicine for their children and prevents the healthy development of a new generation.

At Camp David, the leaders of the eight richest countries build on their commitments and partner with developing countries to urgently tackle hunger.

Yesterday, G-8 and African leaders to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, the next phase ofshared commitment to achieving global food security. In partnership with Africa’s people and leaders, the goals are to increase responsible domestic and foreign private investments in African agriculture, take innovations that can enhance agricultural productivity to scale, and reduce the risk borne by vulnerable economies and communities.

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is a shared commitment to achieve sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years by aligning the commitments of Africa’s leadership to drive effective country plans and policies for food security; the commitments of private sector partners to increase investments where the conditions are right; and the commitments of the G-8 to expand Africa’s potential for rapid and sustainable agricultural growth.

In addition, the European Commission welcomed the “New Alliance to improve Food and nutrition security” launched in Washington, DC, on the eve of the G8 Summit.

The European Union has been an active partner in the preparation of the “New Alliance” which aims at boosting productivity, domestic and international private sector investments and supporting innovation and technology in Africa.

According to EU, it will support it as part of its action to tackle hunger and poverty, food security, nutrition and agricultural development.

The “New Alliance” gathers together donors, partner countries and the private sector in a joint effort to lift 50 million people out of poverty in the next ten years.

The European Union is at the forefront of the fight against hunger.

Three years ago, at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, President Obama rallied the leaders of the world’s richest countries to promise to invest $22bn dollars over three years through country-led plans for food security.

Mina Fabulous follows the news, especially what is going on in the US State Department. Mina turns State Department waffle into plain English. Mina Fabulous is the pen name of Carmen Avalino, the NewsBlaze production editor. When she isn’t preparing stories for NewsBlaze writers, she writes stories, but to separate her editing and writing identities, she uses the name given by her family and friends.

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