Will Hunger be Forgotten on World Food Day?
The global financial crisis has dominated public attention in recent weeks. World leaders are responding to that crisis with substantial support to strengthen banking systems and restore confidence in the economy. Yet these necessary measures must not divert attention from the ongoing food crisis in which 950 million people suffer from chronic hunger.
Even the International Monetary Fund, which most often urges economic austerity, has called on donors to honor their commitments to fighting hunger. International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at this week’s World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings that, “During the food crisis a lot of aid has been pledged by donors…because the prices went straight up on their budgets those countries are now reluctant to really provide the money. I would just urge these countries not to do that. Not to cut those kinds of expenses.”
The irony of that statement was not lost on those who understand how the World Bank and IMF contributed to the ongoing food crisis by insisting on cuts in public support to agriculture. ActionAid has documented the problems with that approach and outlined a new 10 Point Program to End Hunger.
Shefali Sharma, head of ActionAid’s Food Crisis Task Force, said, “It is urgent that we not only address the financial industry and how it impacts the developed world, but how this crisis is going to really hit the poorest of the poor in our world. We need more investments in agriculture in developing countries to help small farmers become food self-sufficient.”
As pressing as the financial crisis is, there are nearly a billion people who are hungry and who are very much in need of well-managed, better-targeted aid packages. It is simply unacceptable to take those packages off the table as a result of the financial crisis. On October 16, World Food Day, join ActionAid to call on the US Congress to honor its promise to address the food crisis.
Write to your Member of Congress to insist that the US honor its aid commitments.
