From: Tsegai Emmanuel (emmanuelt40@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Jul 10 2009 - 09:56:44 EDT
[image: BBC NEWS]
G8 pledges to boost food supplies
*Leaders of the G8 developed nations have pledged $20bn (£12bn) for efforts
to boost food supplies to the hungry, on the final day of a summit in Italy.
*
The investment, which is $5bn more than had been 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 huge
importance to all nations in the world.
Richer nations had a moral obligation to help poorer nations, he said.
Mr Obama added that the G8 nations had agreed to commit $15bn for the new
initiative going into Friday's meeting, but had then promised an additional
$5bn in "hard commitments" during the talks.
"We do not view this assistance as an end in itself," he said.
"We believe that the purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where
it's no longer needed, to help people become self-sufficient, provide for
their families and lift their standards of living."
Mr Obama, who has relatives in Kenya, said he had drawn on his family's
personal experience in his discussions with other world leaders.
The US will reportedly contribute some $3.5bn to the programme.
Mr Obama met representatives of Angola, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal in
L'Aquila, where the summit is being held. He will also meet Pope Benedict
XVI in Rome before embarking on an African tour later on Friday.
African leaders had earlier urged G8 nations to live up to past aid pledges.
BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker says the idea is to put more
emphasis on helping people feed themselves.
That is to be achieved with more investment in the agriculture of developing
countries, and the G8 nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Russia and the US - will provide significant resources, our
correspondent adds.
However, although the total amount of overseas development aid (ODA) was
increased in 2008, the rich countries are still behind on their target to
double aid that was made at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005 - and Italy is
among the laggards.
“ *It is time for us to switch because food security is not just food aid *”
Kanaya Nwanze International Fund for Agricultural Development
Not all the money pledged to the agriculture initiative at the summit will
be new funding.
Kanaya Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development, told the BBC that he welcomed the announcement of more
investment in agriculture in the developing world.
"It is time for us to switch because food security is not just food aid," he
said.
"It is the ability of people to produce food locally and for them to be able
to have access to local markets."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who also attended Friday's talks,
told Reuters news agency beforehand that the key message from African
nations was that the G8 had to live up to its commitments.
Aid organisations have criticised some members for failing to deliver on the
promise made at the 2005 G8 summit to increase annual aid levels to
sub-Saharan Africa by $25bn by 2010.
Italy, the present summit host, has come under particular pressure for
cutting, rather than increasing, aid this year.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said the global economic crisis and
Italy's mounting debts are responsible for a delay in Rome meeting its
promises.
*Climate challenge *
On Thursday, when the summit focused on climate change, leaders from both
developed and developing nations agreed that global temperatures should not
rise more than 2C above 1900 levels.
That is the level above which, the UN says, the Earth's climate system would
become dangerously unstable.
Mr Obama said the G8 and developing nations had made important strides in
dealing with climate change.
But the G8 failed to persuade the developing countries to accept targets of
cutting emissions by 50% by 2050.
On Wednesday, the G8 agreed its own members would work towards 80% cuts by
the same date.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the G8 had not done enough and should
also set 2020 targets for emissions cuts.
BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin says the declaration is a significant
step, with all big countries - rich and poor - agreeing there is a
scientific limit on the amount we can warm the climate.
But there is still a huge way to go, he says, as developing nations like
India will not sign up to any 2050 targets unless rich nations show more
determination and offer more cash.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8143566.stm
Published: 2009/07/10 13:09:17 GMT
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