Major New Poll Shows Americans Strongly Support Foreign Aid To Reduce World Hunger

Bread for the World
Friday, 2 February 2001

Bread for the World Urges Congress, Bush Administration to Lead the Way with Anti-Poverty Aid for Africa

WASHINGTON (Feb. 2) -- Citing a new poll showing that Americans want their government to lead the way in reducing world hunger, Bread for the World president David Beckmann today called on Congress and the Bush administration to take up that challenge.

"The United States and other industrial nations have the resources and the know-how to cut world hunger in half by the year 2015," Beckmann said. "We have lacked only the political will. In this poll Americans say they want to end hunger and are more than willing to pay their share."

The new poll, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), found that Americans overwhelmingly favor using U.S. foreign aid to ease hunger and spur economic development in the world's poorest countries (click here to access the study). This is one of the first comprehensive studies of American attitudes toward foreign aid since 1995, when PIPA last conducted a similar survey. The study included a nationwide poll of 901 randomly selected Americans as well as focus groups and a review of polling by other organizations.

In its 1995 poll, PIPA found that 64 percent of the public wanted to cut foreign aid, while the new poll shows this number has fallen to 40 percent. The new study also clearly illustrates that Americans would overwhelmingly support a global effort to reduce hunger worldwide, specifically in Africa. Eighty-three percent of the public said that the United States should be willing to commit to a joint plan for cutting world hunger in half by the year 2015, and 70 percent of respondents rejected the notion that, "The U.S. has no vital interest in Africa."

Beckmann predicted the poll would boost Bread for the World's Africa: Hunger to Harvest campaign, in which thousands of church members and others will urge Congress to make a long-term commitment to help reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region.

Many members of Congress mistakenly believe that Americans are overwhelmingly against foreign aid and don't care about hungry and poor people overseas," said Beckmann, a Lutheran pastor. "This poll shows us that is not true."

Bread for the World will propose that Congress begin by approving an additional $1 billion a year in effective, poverty-focused aid to Africa. That aid would include the next installment of U.S. funds for international debt relief, $240 million for fiscal year 2002.

"The total annual cost of this $1 billion package would be a penny a day per American," Beckmann said. "With our country expecting budget surpluses totaling $2.2 trillion over the next decade, we surely can afford this investment in a healthier, more secure world."

Of those polled, 87 percent favored giving food and medical assistance to countries in need. Seventy-three percent favored U.S. aid to help poor countries develop their economies. And 75 percent said they would be willing to pay $50 a year in taxes to cut world hunger in half.

Africa: Hunger to Harvest is Bread for the World's principal lobbying campaign for 2001. "We want the United States to focus on Africa because that is where hunger is most widespread and persistent," Beckmann said. "If we want to cut hunger in half worldwide by 2015, our greatest challenge is in Africa."

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where hunger has more than doubled over the last 30 years. One of every three people there is chronically undernourished and 291 million people (as many as the entire U.S. population) live on less than $1 a day.

Africa's efforts to overcome poverty have been thwarted by civil wars, the HIV/AIDS pandemic (which kills 6,000 people a day), burdensome foreign debt, declining farm production, environmental problems and other hardships. But recently there have been signs of renewal, including new democratic governments, the rise of grassroots organizations, and economic progress.

With additional aid, African countries could begin to make investments to work themselves out of poverty. These might include enrolling more children in school (especially girls, who are often kept out), improving farm production and food distribution, treating and preventing HIV/AIDS and other diseases, encouraging business investment, building roads, and fostering small businesses.

During the last Congress, Bread for the World was a key part of the Jubilee 2000 coalition that persuaded a once-reluctant Congress to approve debt relief for poor countries. BFW members generated approximately 250,000 letters to Congress in support of debt relief. The organization also was instrumental in securing U.S. food stamp program reforms to help about a million low-income households.

For more information, or to contact Bread for the World, see their website at: www.bread.org