On May 25, the House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations held a hearing on world food aid.
Chair Christopher Smith (R-NJ) outlined the global hunger crisis, noting that 25,000 people die each day from hunger-related causes, according to UN estimates. Rep. Smith addressed the importance of food aid to communities affected by HIV/AIDS and highlighted the effectiveness of the McGovern-Dole International Food and Child Nutrition Program, especially for girls.
Ranking Member Donald Payne (D-NJ) asserted that hunger has increased in more than half of the developing nations since 1990 and called the situation “abominable.” He stated that “the West extracts $30 billion from Africa every year,” highlighting U.S. cotton subsidies, which result in lost export earnings for African farmers.
Asserting that world hunger is “a solvable problem,” UN World Food Programme Executive Director James Morris focused his testimony on assisting mothers and children: “Worldwide, there are roughly 100 million hungry children who get next to no assistance at all from anyone. To give them and their mothers a very basic package of food, nutrition and basic health care, we’ve calculated would cost something in the vicinity of US $5 billion a year. That’s almost the same amount as Congress has appropriated to assist 7 million American women and infants through the WIC [Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children] program in FY 2005.” Mr. Morris praised the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, adding, “We must consider ways to ensure that the nutritional needs of people affected by HIV are taken into consideration: so that they’re well-nourished enough to benefit from antiretroviral treatment; so that their children can still go to school, instead of working to put food on the table; so that HIV-positive mothers can give birth to healthy babies.”
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator Michael Hess reviewed USAID strategies to improve the Agency’s emergency response capabilities. Confirming that children, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly are the most vulnerable populations, Mr. Hess said that USAID is focusing resources on “development-oriented multi-year assistance programs on the most vulnerable people in the most food insecure countries so we can have the greatest possible impact and help the neediest people.” Other initiatives include the prepositioning of food, including a new site for Africa, and the local and regional purchase of food, rather than relying solely on U.S. food supplies. In addition, he said, USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance has implemented community-based feeding centers, which bring health care professionals to communities “instead of making mothers bring sick children to a center.” Mr. Hess cited a holistic approach and flexibility as crucial elements in fighting global hunger.
Former Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture and former Rep. Tony Hall (D-OH) stressed the importance of feeding school children and spoke of his personal experience: “For me, when I return from a trip to Africa, the images that are most vivid in my mind are of the children who burst with energy because they are being fed in school. I have seen, even in the most depressing slums of sub-Saharan Africa, ebullient children chanting and singing about how they’ve improved in their studies because of school feeding.” Mr. Hall warned that “global food donations are shrinking, not growing,” and he proposed food aid legislation that would incorporate programs, such as water projects, micromanagement financing for women, and teaching mothers to read.
Explaining that “six million people will die of hunger-related causes this year,” Sean Callahan, vice president for Overseas Operations for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), urged Congress to authorize $2 billion for FY2007 Title II funds. He stated that CRS Title II programs between 2001 and 2004 had resulted in more than one million students receiving a school meal, an 86 percent increase in girls’ graduation from primary school in Burkina Faso, a 60 percent increase in vaccination rates for children under three years of age, and an 86 percent increase in the exclusive breastfeeding of infants during their first six months.
