New Report Says World Hunger Can Be Cut In Half By 2015, U.S. Foreign Aid Catalyst

Bread for the World
Wednesday, 21 March 2001

Congress, Bush Administration Urged to Lead Effort, Cost Would Amount To A Penny A Day Per American

WASHINGTON (March 21) - For a penny a day per American, the United States can lead an international campaign to cut world hunger in half by the year 2015. That is the conclusion of Foreign Aid to End Hunger, a report issued today by Bread for the World Institute.

The report recommends that Congress and President Bush start with $1 billion a year in additional U.S. aid and debt relief for sub-Saharan Africa, where hunger is most widespread and intractable. This U.S. commitment, the report says, would prompt other industrial nations to provide more aid.

Foreign Aid to End Hunger is Bread for the World Institute's 11th annual report on the state of world and U.S. hunger. The Institute, a Washington education and research center, is a partner organization of Bread for the World, a nationwide Christian citizens movement against hunger.

"Hunger has dropped dramatically in developing countries during the last thirty years, but tragically, it has doubled in sub-Saharan Africa," said Bread for the World president David Beckmann. "If we want to cut world hunger in half by 2015, we have to start where hunger hits hardest."

In sub-Saharan Africa, 291 million people live on less than $1 a day, and one person in three is chronically undernourished. The region's problems have been exacerbated by civil wars, HIV/AIDS, declining agriculture, huge foreign debts, inadequate education and health care, and a lack of roads and other infrastructure.

To overcome hunger and poverty, the report says, African countries need to improve agriculture and food distribution, build infrastructure, enroll more children in school, empower and educate women, prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and start new businesses and microenterprises. Bread for the World Institute recommends a long-term U.S. aid partnership to help African countries make these investments.

Reducing African nations' foreign debt payments is essential, the report says, to free additional money for education, health care and other investments. The industrial nations have agreed to write off $90 billion of poor country debt. But Congress must approve the U.S. contribution each year.

Foreign Aid to End Hunger includes a new poll showing that 83 percent of Americans favor a U.S. commitment to help cut world hunger in half by 2015. The nationwide poll by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes found that Americans overwhelmingly favor, and are willing to pay for, U.S. aid to help the world's poorest countries, especially in Africa. Moreover, Americans support this aid despite their misgivings (and misconceptions) about foreign aid in general.

Well-planned, poverty-focused U.S. foreign aid can make a big difference for hungry and poor people, the report argues. The Marshall Plan and other U.S. programs helped Europe and Japan rebuild after World War II. The Green Revolution doubled crop yields and cut hunger by more than half in Asia. The UNICEF Child Survival Initiative, partly supported by U.S. aid, saves the lives of four million children each year through low-cost immunizations and oral rehydration therapy.

"Hunger is one problem we can actually solve," Beckmann said. "For the first time in history, we have the resources and technology to do it. The cost is surprisingly low. But our government must make it a priority. Other industrial countries have made it clear that if we take the lead, they will join us. They are waiting to see if we will accept that challenge."

Beckmann noted that the number of undernourished people in developing countries has decreased by 20 percent over the last 25 years, despite the population explosion. "Even with this improvement," he said, "792 million people in the developing world are still undernourished. If we don't act to reduce their hunger in a time of great prosperity, when will we do it?"

In addition to making the case for U.S. aid to Africa, Bread for the World Institute's report provides detailed statistics on U.S. and world hunger and poverty, as it does every year, as well as a list of the world's "hunger hotspots," and suggestions for what individuals and organizations can do to help reduce hunger.

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