House Leaders Unveil Bipartisan Plan Calling For Additional Development Aid To Fight Hunger In Africa

Bread for the World
Thursday, 5 April 2001

[Below are the comments of Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, on the introduction Wednesday by Reps. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and Donald Payne (D-N.J.) of H. Con. Res. 102, "Hunger to Harvest: A Decade of Concern for Africa." The resolution -- the genesis being Bread for the World's research and focus of grassroots advocacy this year -- calls upon the United States government, along with its international allies, to commit to a global plan to cut world hunger in half by 2015 by increasing funds for poverty- focused development assistance for sub-Saharan Africa. While hunger has dropped dramatically in developing countries during the last thirty years, it has doubled in sub-Saharan Africa. The Leach-Payne proposal cites the calculation by Bread for the World that the goal of reducing world hunger in half by 2015 is achievable through an international increase of $4 billion for poverty-focused development assistance, the U.S. share being $1 billion, amounting to a penny per day per American. The "Hunger to Harvest" resolution will be the subject of Bread for the World's 2001 advocacy efforts, known as the Offering of Letters, which the organization's 45,000 members will rally around to build Congressional support.]

"I applaud the leadership and vision of Representatives Leach and Payne in introducing the Hunger to Harvest resolution. This bipartisan team deserves enormous credit for standing up and taking the lead on this effort to lift up the millions of poor and hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa. With only a modest commitment, we know how to cut world hunger in half by 2015. We have the resources to make it happen. The only missing ingredient has been political leadership, but with Representatives Leach and Payne out in front, we have able stewards leading the way.

"This will be a rallying cry for Bread for the World members, who will soon begin flooding Congressional offices with urgent pleas to support this resolution. Our plan is to generate a growing body for support for this resolution that the Congressional budget writers cannot ignore. If our recent work to convince a skeptical Congress to fund debt relief is any gauge, a grassroots, faith-based movement can beat the odds and win great victories for the world's poor and hungry people."

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