Building Political Commitment to Overcome Hunger and Poverty

By David Beckmann
President, Bread for the World/Institute and the Alliance to End Hunger

September 2006

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When Bread for the World began in 1974, one in three people in the world were chronically hungry. Now that figure has dropped to one in six. God is moving to liberate hundreds of millions of people from extreme poverty, answering the prayers of parents in poor countries and Bread for the World members alike. Global progress against hunger and poverty is a great exodus, an experience of the living God in our time.

The nations of the world have all agreed on the Millennium Development Goals, proclaiming the feasibility of cutting world hunger and poverty in half within the next 10 years. Countries as diverse as China and Chile have reduced poverty. Some developing countries have enrolled more children in school and reduced childhood deaths even without achieving economic growth -- underscoring the fact that the persistence of widespread food insecurity in the United States is unnecessary. The global prevalence of HIV has stabilized, and the number of Africans receiving anti-retroviral therapy more than doubled in 2005 alone.

War, environmental degradation, growing polarization between wealthy and poor people and nations, and other problems slow down progress against poverty, hunger and disease. Yet despite all the problems, good things are happening. As people of faith, Bread for the World members are using our gift of citizenship to win policy changes that open opportunities for hungry and poor people.

Strengthening Advocacy

Bread for the World has 56,000 members from diverse Christian traditions and various political outlooks. Our membership continues to grow as people all over the country respond to the call to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves… and defend the rights of the poor and needy" (Proverbs 31:8-9). Almost every year, Bread for the World wins substantial victories in Congress for hungry people, both here in the United States and around the world. Funding for poverty-focused development assistance, for example, has grown from $4 billion in 1999 to $10.6 billion in 2006. Congress and the president are now debating whether to add $1 billion or $2 billion more for 2007.

But clearly, Bread for the World cannot by itself build the political commitment needed to achieve the progress against hunger and poverty that we know is possible. As a Christian organization, Bread for the World is eager to participate in what God is doing to liberate people in need, and that often takes us beyond simply building our own organization.

Our efforts to strengthen the broader movement against hunger include helping other groups get involved in advocacy. This work has borne fruit. Many U.S. charities working in developing countries now lobby Congress on behalf of the people they serve. The national network of food banks, America's Second Harvest, has become an important voice for food stamps and other national nutrition programs. Many individual BFW members build the movement in their communities by supporting other groups that advocate for poor people and helping their congregations tackle the causes of local hunger.

In June last year, Bread for the World organized an Interfaith Convocation on Hunger at the Washington National Cathedral. Remarkably, more than 40 of the country's top religious leaders agreed to participate – Catholics, evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and others. Together we called on the U.S. government to provide leadership in ending hunger in God's world. The convocation opened the door to stronger advocacy efforts within a number of religious bodies.

The Alliance to End Hunger

To encourage even broader participation in building the public will to overcome hunger, Bread for the World Institute proposed the Alliance to End Hunger. Now a separate organization, the Alliance's diverse membership includes charities, universities, corporations and unions, in addition to Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups.

The Alliance to End Hunger raises awareness of the importance of better U.S. policies and stronger citizen advocacy. Alliance members have formed several key partnerships to work for stronger nutrition programs. For example, a company called East Side Entrees has teamed up with the anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength and others to persuade schools to provide breakfast for low-income children.

Alliance member Auburn University partnered with the U.N. World Food Program to show how a university can contribute to progress against hunger. Auburn then brought together two dozen universities who are planning a nationwide launch of Universities Fighting World Hunger on World Food Day, October 16. 

The Alliance to End Hunger does studies of voter attitudes about hunger and poverty and shares this information with political leaders and candidates. Alliance member organizations have begun to speak with likely candidates for U.S. president about hunger and poverty as a political priority.

The Alliance is also active in the International Alliance Against Hunger, launched by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and other food agencies in Rome. The International Alliance promotes national alliances against hunger in many countries and has held up the U.S. Alliance as one model.

Building the ONE Campaign 

Bread for the World is a founding member and active participant in the ONE Campaign, a new organization focused on getting the U.S. government to devote an additional ONE percent of the budget to poverty-focused development assistance. Bread for the World began working with Irish rock star and anti-poverty advocate Bono in 1999. When Bono said he wanted to launch a campaign to bring an array of organizations and celebrity advocates together to fight global poverty, we immediately offered to help.

The ONE Campaign has indeed helped to bring many celebrities into advocacy for poor people in Africa and worldwide. Last summer's Live 8 concerts made millions of people, many of them young, more aware of what can be done to reduce poverty in Africa. A year later, 2.4 million people have signed up with the ONE Campaign. So far in 2006, the campaign has mobilized 350,000 e-mails to Congress in support of increased development assistance.

Bread for the World's 2006 Offering of Letters, One Spirit, is the main grassroots and religious outreach of the ONE Campaign this year. Eight young organizers in BFW regional offices work to engage people in the ONE Campaign. Bread for the World has taken the lead in organizing some ONE events. In Seattle, WA, for example, more than 500 people listened to presentations by featured speakers, travel expert Rick Steves and Rev. Mpho Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Bread for the World has helped the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church USA establish ONE Lutheran and ONE Episcopalian campaigns, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is promoting One Spirit as part of the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty. Bread for the World is also working with Micah Challenge, a parallel effort among evangelical Protestants.

  Working with all these initiatives is often complicated, but each brings its own energies to God's movement to liberate hungry and poor people.

Unexpected Help

Leaders across the political spectrum have become more supportive of international development assistance. President Bush has consistently pushed for more international development assistance and has set up new institutions to improve the quality of assistance. Bill and Melinda Gates are also part of this growing momentum. The Gates Foundation, founded in 2000, is investing about $1 billion each year in health and development for poor countries. The Gates Foundation is helping Bono's own organization, the ONE Campaign and Bread for the World Institute.

The Hewlett Foundation also recently began funding analysis and education on policies to reduce global poverty, and they are helping the ONE Campaign and Bread for the World Institute as well.

Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in the world, recently committed much of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The gift is likely to exceed $30 billion, more than doubling what the Gates Foundation can distribute.   

Bread for the World and some church bodies have been advocates on global poverty issues for several decades. But who would have expected help from rock stars and some of the wealthiest families in the country? Who would have expected Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to team up with bishops and preachers to increase poverty-focused development assistance?

As people of faith, we know that God often uses unexpected instruments. The Jewish exiles in Babylon were surprised when God used the Persian emperor, Cyrus, as his servant to allow them to return to Jerusalem (Isaiah 44: 28, NSRV)

Public Concern about Hunger

The growing concern of people across the country is an even stronger reason for hope. A March 2006 bipartisan poll by the Alliance to End Hunger showed strong and increasing voter concern about hunger and poverty in the United States and worldwide.  Although Bread for the World is not getting celebrity help on its domestic hunger issues, voter concern about hunger and poverty in this country is even more widespread than concern about global poverty.

More than 90 percent of likely voters say that people who work should be able to feed their families. Two-thirds are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who makes fighting hunger and poverty a major priority. Two-thirds believe that the government spends too little money on reducing hunger in the United States. Many voters are concerned about the weaknesses of government programs, but the public wants to hear more from political leaders about effective solutions to hunger and poverty.

Bread for the World members thank God for the growing strength and changes won by our anti-hunger movement. The prophet Isaiah gave us the vision: "No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live a lifetime…They shall build houses and inhabit them: they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit… they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord.” (Isaiah 65:20-25)