Chicago Council on Global Affairs Report Calls for Renewed U.S. Leadership in the Fight Against Global Hunger and Poverty

February 25, 2009

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Samantha Skinner Monroe
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Recommendations for a revived U.S. commitment to agricultural development in Africa and South Asia could help more than 270 million people lift themselves out of poverty by 2020 and help restore U.S. global standing.

A bipartisan group of foreign policy and development leaders convened by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs called today for a renewed U.S. commitment to alleviating global poverty through agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions with more than 700 million of the world's poorest people, most of them small farmers and their families.

The group's report, Renewing American Leadership in the Fight Against Global Hunger and Poverty: The Chicago Initiative on Global Agricultural Development, includes five recommendations and more than 20 specific action items for how the United States, through increased agricultural development assistance and partnerships at home and abroad, could help achieve the Millennium Development Goals and restore the United States as a force for positive change in the world.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs initiated the project to provide the incoming U.S. administration and 111th Congress with an objective assessment of the risks posed by rural poverty and food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The report focuses on small farms and the role of women in farm families in bringing about change. It identifies opportunities for the United States to work with governments and other institutions in Africa and South Asia to increase productivity, market access, and incomes for small farmers in these regions. The proposed recommendations can be implemented at a modest cost, with the first year expenditures estimated at $340 million, compared to $83 million now spent on these activities in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

"While our country and many others face daunting financial challenges this year, we must not turn our backs on helping people in the poorest countries acquire one of life's most basic necessities – food," said project co-chair Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture. "This is an expression of America's basic values and vital interests. There is no better way at very affordable cost to reinvigorate U.S. international leadership and strengthen America's image in the developing world. We have the knowledge and technology to solve this problem; what has been lacking is the political resolve."

The project finds that, at a time when global food emergencies are occurring with greater frequency and severity, an unacceptably small percentage of U.S. and international development assistance is committed to improving agricultural productivity in the poorest countries, and helping these nations produce enough food and farm-based income to escape from poverty.

"Hunger and poverty are inextricably linked and the source of many other problems in developing countries such as disease and social dislocation," said project co-chair Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the UN World Food Program. "It is truly amazing how smallholder farms and rural communities in Africa and Asia will flourish when women, who do a large portion of the agriculture work, have access to key inputs such as land, credit, relevant technologies, and all levels of education. By supporting the work of African and Asian partners and engaging U.S. universities, NGOs, and companies, we can help spur a second Green Revolution and reduce poverty."

More than 700 million people who survive on less than $1 per day live in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. In spite of this, the United States only spends 4 percent of its total development assistance on agricultural development. The report argues that there must be a government-led strategy to significantly increase investment in the key areas of global agricultural development where the United States holds great advantage – research, education, and infrastructure – and to help nations in Africa and South Asia to achieve their goals of alleviating rural poverty and related hunger.

The Chicago Council's report outlines five recommendations, with 21 action items, for how the United States can provide the necessary leadership to revitalize the international fight against global hunger and poverty. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, increased investments in agricultural research could help more than 270 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia lift themselves out of poverty by 2020.

Major recommendations include:

• increased agricultural education and extension at all levels,
• greater funding for agricultural research,
• more emphasis on expanding rural and agricultural infrastructure,
• reform of U.S. institutions that deliver agricultural development assistance, and their interactions with international institutions focused on agricultural development assistance, and
• reform of U.S. policies that discourage agricultural development abroad.

"The Council was honored to work with an impressive team that was able to build a fresh and realistic blueprint for how the U.S. can play a key role in addressing this global humanitarian challenge," said Marshall M. Bouton, president of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. "We also know that the American public is supportive of a greater U.S. commitment to the leaders' group proposals, as a 2008 Council survey found that 74 percent of Americans said they wanted the United States to 'provide renewed international leadership' specifically to increase agricultural productivity in poor countries. It is the right time to implement the group's suggested reforms."

The report put forth by the Global Agricultural Development Leaders Group can be found at www.thechicagocouncil.org/globalagdevelopment. This project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.