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G8: World leaders pledge $20 billion in food aid
[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."
They could be self-sufficient. Except they can't grow GM-food since the Euros don't want it. They can't have legal systems that honor contracts. They can't provide basic security, build roads to get food to the markets, and allow farmers to sell food for what they can get for it. They can't keep ports open to ship food in and out, they can't stay off the international aid dole which wrecks local markets, and they can't get the politicians and generals to leave the people alone. Other than that, there's no reason at all ...
The investment, which is 5 billion dollars more than expected, will fund a three-year initiative to help poor nations develop their own agriculture.

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 2009-07-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=274099