Research Papers
From L’Aquila to Camp David: Sustaining the Momentum on Global Food and Nutrition Security
Briefing Paper Number 17 (May 2012)
In July 2009, G-8 leaders, gathered in L’Aquila, Italy, responded to the global food price crisis. The U.S. proposal to invest significantly more effort and resources in agriculture won support from other donor countries, who committed to providing $22 billion in financing for agriculture and food security over three years. This became known as the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI).
The United States is on track to fulfill its pledges of $3.5 billion, but according to 2011 estimates most donors were falling short. Feed the Future is the United States’ primary contribution to AFSI.
As G-8 president in 2012, the United States has an important opportunity to build on the progress made in the last three years to increase investments in smallholder agriculture and integrate nutrition into agriculture and food security efforts.
Americans Reaching Out
Briefing Paper Number 17 (May 2012)
From the Series: Development Works
Concern for those who are less fortunate is a value that resonates with Americans. Many of us, aware of all we have, are very willing to help people in need. Using common sense, being practical, can be considered an American value as well. A quick “reality check” to be sure the assistance is needed and wanted is important to many people who are motivated to help.
Nutrition and Health: Strengthening the Connection
Background Paper Number 219 (April 2012)
Constantia and her family farm a small plot of cassava and maize near their hometown of Cobue, Mozambique. The family is among many in Mozambique who are subsistence farmers, eating what they grow themselves. Most rural farmers in this southern African country have neither fertilizer nor formal training in agriculture. A hoe and a machete—not oxen pulling a plow—are what they use to survive.
Malnutrition among Mozambican children is all too common. It nearly cost Constantia's firstborn child, Gustavo, his life. A few months after his first birthday, Gustavo had a severe case of malaria that weakened his immune system. Constantia and her family worried that breastfeeding was hampering his recovery. But replacing breast milk with a maize porridge worsened the toddler's condition—he developed other infections and continued to lose weight. Gustavo's condition became life-threatening when his body began to retain water, a condition known as edema. At 18 months, he weighed less than 17 pounds—including the water weight.
Effective Development Assistance: Now is the Time
Briefing Paper Number 16 (March 2012)
From the Series: Development Works
Bread for the World and other organizations working to end global hunger frequently talk about development assistance and how it can help hungry people overseas. But what exactly is development assistance? And why should we support funding for it when many Americans are facing hard times?
Enabling and Equipping Women to Improve Nutrition
Briefing Paper Number 16 (March 2012)
Malnutrition during the 1,000 days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday has irreversible physical, cognitive, and health consequences, reducing a person’s lifetime earning potential. For many countries with high rates of hunger and malnutrition, the low status of women is a primary cause. Women often have less education, lower economic status, and limited decisionmaking power in the household and community—all of which contribute to poorer nutrition.
Development and Migration in Mexico’s Rural Communities
Background Paper Number 213 (February 2012)
Here's a question conspicuous by its absence from most U.S. discussions of unauthorized or illegal immigration: Why do people risk their lives crossing the Mexican border, take jobs most Americans won't do, and live away from their families—surrounded by an often unfamiliar language and culture? The answer isn't complicated: inequality, hunger, and poverty in the communities immigrants leave behind.
Improving Food Aid to Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition
Briefing Paper Number 15 (February 2012)
The United States is the world's largest provider of food aid products. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that early childhood nutrition interventions, aimed at the critical "1,000 Days" window from pregnancy through a child's second birthday, are extremely effective and cost-efficient ways to arrest the lifelong effects of malnutrition. More than 100 country governments and civil society organizations have signed on to the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, which supports efforts to expand effective nutrition programs to undernourished pregnant women and young children.
Reducing maternal and child malnutrition is a key priority of the U.S. government's Feed the Future and Global Health initiatives. There are opportunities to reform food aid to better align it with the objectives of these two programs. With debate on the next farm bill beginning, now is the time to improve this essential program.
Linking Nutrition and Health: Progress and Opportunities
Briefing Paper Number 14 (February 2012)
In the last few years, there has been an unprecedented global effort to scale up maternal and child nutrition. The effort is prompted by increasing recognition of the devastating and largely irreversible impact of undernutrition on children in the 1,000-day window from pregnancy to age two—and by a growing consensus on a set of evidence-based, cost-effective nutrition interventions.
The United States has been a leader in the global effort and has made maternal and child nutrition improvements a primary objective of its Feed the Future and Global Health initiatives.
Expanding the Circle of Protection
Background Paper Number 218 (February 2012)
Since the 2010 elections, members of Congress have been primarily focused on reducing the federal deficit in order to balance the budget. But the deficit-reduction proposals Congress is considering could result in the most severe cuts to programs for hungry and poor people in Bread's history.
While Bread members and activists were able to help prevent major cuts last year to vital programs for hungry and poor people, the threats are far from gone. We need to protect what we achieved in 2011 and defend programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps) and international food aid from across-the-board budget cuts in 2012. Bread's 2012 Offering of Letters campaign will urge members of Congress to draw a circle of protection around these critical programs.
Rebalancing Act: Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policies
Background Paper Number 217 (December 2011)
The global agricultural system faces many daunting challenges. Seven billion people currently inhabit the Earth, and the population is expected to rise to 9 billion by 2050. Food production must increase as climate change puts additional stress on natural resources. Nearly 1 billion people around the world suffer from hunger. In the United States, one in four people participates in a federal nutrition program. U.S. food and farm policies absolutely need to be aligned.
The 2012 Hunger Report recommends ways for the federal government to better respond to the agriculture and nutrition challenges of today and tomorrow. Normally change in food and farm policy occurs incrementally. The 2012 Hunger Report calls for bolder, more determined thinking about how U.S. food and farm policies can meet the global and domestic challenges of the 21st century.
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