Post date: May 18, 2012 7:11:29 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MAY 18, 2012) (RESTRICTED POOL) - U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Friday (May 18) $3 billion in pledges towards alleviating hunger and boosting food security in Africa. The new public-private partnership program is an effort to spur this weekend's summit of the wealthy Group of Eight nations (G8) to focus on market methods to boost production among small-scale farmers in Africa, who may hold the key to improved world food supplies.
U.S. President Barack Obama announces $3 billion in pledges towards alleviating hunger and boosting food security in Africa.
This year's meeting of the G8 - the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia - will focus on the economic headaches plaguing the world's richest countries, including worries over Greece, the future of the euro zone and proposals to tap emergency oil reserves to offset diminishing exports from sanctions-hit Iran.
But U.S. officials say the Obama administration also wants the G8 to take fresh steps to improve global food security, building on its 2009 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, which sought to mobilize $20 billion over three years to boost agricultural investments in poor countries.
"True development involves not only delivering aid, but also promoting economic growth. Broad-based inclusive growth that actually helps nations develop and lift people out of poverty. The whole purpose of develop to create the situation where assistance is no longer needed, where people have the dignity and the pride of being self-sufficient," Obama said.
Global food prices soared in 2008, which led to increased hunger, malnutrition and social unrest, highlighting the years of under investment in agriculture in developing countries. They have remained high and volatile since, rising by 40 percent between June and December 2010 alone, while maize and wheat prices doubled during that period, raising the food bills of the world's poor countries.
"Despite the fact that African farmers can be some of the hardest working people on earth, most of the world's unused arable land is in Africa. Fifty years ago Africa was an exporter in food. There no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself and exporting food again," said Obama.
The president has made improving global food supplies a keystone of U.S. overseas development policy.
"As president, I consider this a moral imperative. As the wealthiest nation on earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition," he said, noting that sufficient food supplies are also a matter of national security.
"Reducing malnutrition and hunger around the world advances international peace and security, and that includes the national security of the United States," he said.
The initiative calls for agribusiness giants such as DuPont, Monsanto and Cargill to partner with smaller companies including almost 20 from Africa. Together, they will commit some $3 billion for projects to help farmers in the developing world build local markets and improve productivity. The focus will be on some 30 countries, home to about 26 percent of the 1.4 billion extreme poor, that already have globally backed agricultural investment plans that need donor support. Among the countries are Bangladesh, Benin, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Uganda, Tajikistan and Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ghanian President John Atta Mills and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete attended the speech where President Obama thanked them for their efforts on food security in their home continent.