Africa: Hunger to Harvest

February 6, 2001 Comments Off

Bread for the World’s 2001 Offering of Letters, Africa: Hunger to Harvest, urges Congress to help reduce hunger in Africa through continued funding for debt relief and an increase of $1 billion in poverty-focused assistance to Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region of the world where hunger is widespread and increasing.
With this additional aid, African countries could better carry out development programs that give communities the capacity to improve education, health, agriculture and economic opportunity. The cost to our government would amount to one penny a day per American. By making this commitment to Africa, the United States could leverage as much as another $4 billion in development aid from other countries.

Despite positive economic and political changes in Africa, severe problems remain. In sub-Saharan Africa, one of every three persons is chronically undernourished. This hunger has multiple causes including severe poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, civil wars, foreign debt, degraded land and inadequate education.

In Africa: Hunger to Harvest, we will make the case that African nations need additional U.S. aid to develop their human and natural resources—and thereby strengthen their capacity to deal with hunger, poverty and related problems. Development strategies would vary throughout the region, depending on each country’s and each community’s needs and priorities.

Among other things, sub-Saharan Africa needs resources to improve farming and support farmer-owned businesses; prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases; enroll more children in school (especially girls, who are often kept out); and create microenterprises and business opportunities.

For more information… http://www.bread.org/issues/offering.html