A young boy at mealtime at the Instituto Centro do Povo, which is funded by United Methodist Committee on Relief for “lost” children in Gamboaia, Brazil. The children are not orphans, but they may only have one parent. Photo by Diana Barnett.

Why is it important to invest in reducing hunger?

• The U.S. Agency for International Development has concluded that hunger is the most critical manifestation of poverty, and that eliminating it would be a major factor in reducing poverty.
  
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that hunger reduces productivity, which in turn deepens poverty and intensifies vulnerability to malnutrition.
  
• Reducing hunger and poverty is a key to solving such problems as overpopulation, conflict, environmental degradation, gender inequality and illegal immigration.

How is the U.S. Government reducing global hunger?

• U.S. assistance helps improve agricultural productivity, which allows farmers to sell the crops they don’t need for their families.
  
• The U.S. is helping to improve food security and access to aid in the developing world by using improved technology that can target the most vulnerable groups.

Progress has been made.

• The number of undernourished people is declining by 6 million annually.
  
• USAID says maize yields among small farmers in Uganda increased by 46 percent over the past five years as the result of improved agricultural technologies.
  
• Record rice harvests in the West African nation of Mali over the past three years are the result of foreign assistance that has brought marketing reforms, high-yielding rice varieties and private investment in irrigation.

But challenges remain.

• Of the 1 billion people who are vulnerable to hunger, half live in South Asia and one third live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• More than 153 million of the world’s malnourished are children under the age of five.
  
• The World Health Organization estimates that 7 million farmers in the developing world have died from HIV/AIDS since 1985.

Articles on Reducing Hunger:

• Small Village in Cambodia Makes the Journey to Self-Sufficiency, CONCERN Worldwide
  
• Building Self-Sufficiency among Moldovan Farmers, Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs
  
• Malawian Farmers Unite To Find Power; Self-Sufficiency, ACDI/VOCA
  
• Benefits of Fresh-Water Wells Trickle Into Entire Community, Christian Children's Fund
  
• Rwandan Health Program Saves Lives; Builds Self-Sufficiency, International Rescue Committee

World Leaders Speak Out...

Bill Gates Sr., Director of the Gates Foundation - July 5, 2003
"We will talk about the importance of alleviating extreme poverty as an economic and national security issue. But, from my point view, this is a humanitarian issue. People are dying; people are starving to death...We need to help them."

Basic Education  |  Health Care  |  Work & Farming Skills  |  Reducing Hunger

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