Calling food security a moral, economic and security imperative, President Obama today announced a new G8 initiative that he called “a major new partnership to reduce hunger and lift tens of millions of people from poverty.” The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition brings together G8 and African governments and the private sector with the aim of reducing hunger and lifting 50 million people out of poverty by 2022 through greater agricultural investment.
The partnership builds on the commitment leaders made during the 2009 G8 meeting in L’Aquila to put the fight against hunger at the top of the development agenda – a fight that is about more than aid, the president said.
The President made the announcement at a Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on the eve of the G8 Summit at Camp David:
Fifty years ago Africa was an exporter of food. There is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself and exporting food again.
President Obama said that 45 companies, “from major international corporations to African companies and cooperatives”, have pledged to invest more than $3 billion to kick-start the initiative.
Read the President’s full speech here.
The heads of FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme welcomed the initiative.
FAO Deputy Director-General Ann Tutwiler, in attendance at the symposium, said that the New Alliance provides an opportunity to build on successful and encouraging approaches that are already under way and can play a catalytic role.
“African farmers invest three times as much as governments and vastly more than development partners or foreign investors, yet their investments still remain constrained by lack of resources and unfavorable policy environments,” Tutwiler said. “Facilitation of private sector investment should benefit smallholder and family farmers, herders and fishers and in particular the needs of women and youth.”
Through its wide decentralized network and work with government ministries concerned with agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural resources, FAO is well positioned to assist countries in prioritizing agriculture and getting their policy frameworks right, she said.
