US president's $3b food pledge

Africa farm aid plan involving private sector aims to lift 50 million people out of poverty

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AFP
AFP
AFP

Washington:  US President Barack Obama is set to announce $3 billion (Dh11.01 billion) in private sector pledges for farm aid aimed at alleviating hunger in Africa. The initiative involving 45 companies worldwide will also urge the world's biggest economies to make good on their own financial promises.

Obama is expected to unveil the food security initiative in a speech in Washington that kicks off a four-day international summit. World leaders are gathering at Camp David, the presidential retreat, for a summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations.

Leaders at the G8 economic summit have sought to focus some of their efforts in recent years on the plight of the developing world. At the 2009 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, Obama championed a food security initiative that resulted in $22 billion in pledges from G8 leaders and other nations.

The private sector commitments Obama was announcing build on that effort, administration officials said. The goal is to achieve sustained agriculture growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years.

"It's not about replacing aid," said Mike Froman, a top Obama adviser for international economics. "It's about combining aid with private capital."

Besides announcing new investments in African agriculture, Obama is expected to call on countries to fulfil the financial food security pledges they made in 2009.

The pledge period for L'Aquila Food Security Initiative ends later this year, and some humanitarian groups say much of the promised money has not been dispersed.

Rising consumption

The new move is meant to show continued US commitment to boosting global food production as rising wealth in Asia drives consumption and the planet adds two billion people by 2050, said Rajiv Shah, head of the US Agency for International Development.

World food supplies are being stretched by rising demand in emerging markets and increased use of crops in biofuels, leading to higher and more volatile prices, according to a US intelligence report released last week.

Import-dependent countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan are especially vulnerable to food unrest, the report said. Competition for water will fuel instability in South Asia and the Middle East, the US said in March.

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