Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative
In April 2009, President Barack Obama announced a new program to end world hunger, mainly by strengthening agriculture in poor countries.
Details of the new global hunger and food security initiative, now called Feed the Future, were publicly released May 20, 2010, in Washington, DC.
Many elements of Feed and Future reflect policies Bread has long considered top priorities. They include:
- Focusing on agricultural development, particularly for small-scale producers and women.
- Improving nutrition for women and young children.
- Ensuring that efforts are “country-led”—meaning the communities, constituencies, and countries affected by hunger are setting priorities and developing programs.
However, Bread for the World fears that unless it's clear who is in charge of the program—preferably the administrator of USAID—it will never get off the ground. Currently, two ambassadors have been appointed as deputy coordinators, one based in the State Department and the other at USAID.
Once Feed the Future gets going, it could potentially be a good model for making U.S. foreign assistance more effective, the goal of Bread’s Offering of Letters campaign.
Further Reading
Focusing on Agricultural Development
Realizing agriculture’s potential to create economic opportunities in rural communities is clearly important to reducing hunger and poverty—yet most donors have been partners in a steady decline of support for agriculture and rural development.The Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative: New Hope for Farmers
The 2008 global crisis in food prices pushed the number of hungry people past the 1 billion mark.
Worldwide, it underlined the urgent need to invest more in agriculture for the longer term and in nutrition assistance for vulnerable people now.
New Hope for Malnourished Mothers and Children
The Obama administration's initiative to fight hunger offers an opportunity to improve nutrition of mothers and children around the world.
In addition to the focus on increasing agricultural productivity and raising rural incomes, the administration should scale up nutrition interventions and integrate nutrition into its development programming.
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