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| G8: World leaders pledge $20 billion in food aid | |
| 2009-07-11 | |
| [ADN Kronos] The G8 summit has pledged 20 billion dollars over three years to boost agricultural investment and fight hunger. The leaders of the world's wealthiest countries announced the global aid on the final day of their three-day summit in the central Italian city of L'Aquila. "Wealthy nations have a moral obligation as well as a national security interest in providing assistance and we 've got to meet those responsibilities," Obama said. "The flip side is countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the world that are suffering from extreme poverty have an obligation to use the assistance available that is transparent and accountable and build on rule of law and institutional reforms. "There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient."
US president Barack Obama said the issue of food security was of major importance to every country around the world. Richer nations had a moral obligation to help poorer nations, he said. Africa took centre stage at the G8 summit on Friday and the world's wealthy countries were asked to respect aid that they had pledged in the past. After two days of talks focused on the economic crisis, trade and global warming, the final day of the meeting in Italy looked at problems facing the poorest nations, with a US-led focus on aid for farmers rather than emergency food supplies. The US will reportedly contribute some 3.5 billion dollars to the programme. The United Nations estimates the number of malnourished people has risen over the past two years and is expected to top 1.02 billion this year, reversing a four-decade trend of declines. "Food aid is necessary because we have people suffering from drought, from flood, from conflicts and what they want is immediate food to eat," Jacques Diouf, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, said at the L'Aquila summit. At Gleneagles in 2005, G8 leaders promised to increase annual aid by 50 billion dollars by 2010, half of which was meant for African countries. But aid bodies say some G8 countries have gone back on their word, especially this year's G8 host, Italy. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 "There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient." Why should they be when idiots like Barry send them 20 billion in food aid every three years? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-07-11 18:09 |
| #2 In reality, when all the meetings and press conference have ended, the United States donates 1/2 or more of the world's food aid each year. And we receive 0% of the recognition or gratitude. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-07-11 01:38 |
| #1 "Wealthy nations have a moral obligation as well as a national security interest in providing assistance and we 've got to meet those responsibilities," Such as sending gobs of it to South Africa after they stole all the land from the existing evil white farmers so they could replace them with a bunch of idiots? Such as sending more gobs of it to other countries that are being run into the ground by corruption? I don't think so. I have a feeling the West is going to be needing most of it themselves pretty soon, so don't get them too dependent on it. |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-07-11 00:45 |