[ 2012-05-19 ]

Obama Unveils US Food Security Plan For Africa
The United States of America (USA) has unveiled a
plan to release US$3 billion to fight hunger and
malnutrition in Africa.

President Barack Obama, who made the pledge at the
opening of the G8 summit Friday, said it was a
moral, economic and security imperative to address
food security in Africa.

President Obama said investments in African
agriculture by private US companies, for a total
of more than $3bn, would address 'unacceptable'
starvation.

'It's a moral imperative, it's an economic
imperative and it's a security imperative,' Mr
Obama said.

''There is no reason why Africa cannot feed
itself.'

The summit is being attended by President John
Evans Atta Mills alongside Mr Jekaya Kikwete of
Tanzania, AU Chairman and Mr Thomas Yayi Boni of
Benin and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of
Ethiopia.

Taking his turn to address a symposium on global
agriculture and food security at the Ronald Reagan
Building International Trade Centre in Washington,
DC, President Mills pledged the Ghana Government’s
commitment to ensuring food security.

He said the government was liaising with the
private sector as well as traditional authorities
to make land and other facilities available to end
poverty and hunger in Ghana.

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton has lauded President John Evans Atta Mills
and the three other African heads of state who are
attending the summit for their leadership roles in
tackling food insecurity and malnutrition in their
countries.

She described them as bold leaders who the Obama
administration together with the private sector
would want to support to reduce global hunger and
poverty.

Mrs Clinton made the commendation at a reception
for the four African leaders, representatives of
the G8 member countries and the private sector,
which has supported the Obama administration to
address global food insecurity, hunger and
malnutrition.

President Mills, AU Chairman and President of
Benin, Thomas Yayi Boni, President Jekaya Kikwete
of Tanzania and the immediate past AU Commission
Chairman, Dr Jean Ping, among a host of other
dignitaries attended the reception, which was held
on the premises of the State Department.

Mrs. Clinton said the bold leadership roles
President Mills and his three other colleagues had
adopted are worthy of emulation.

“These gentlemen are here because they understand
the opportunities that is being presented they
have a true partnership, a global partnership
around the ending of food insecurity hunger and
malnutrition…we want to support and buildup
countries who have leaders like those here before
you to take their rightful place of leadership
regionally and globally”, Mrs Clinton said.

She said statistics showed that about one billion
people worldwide suffered from chronic hunger and
75 per cent of poor people who lived in rural
areas depended solely on agriculture for their
livelihood.

She said it was for that reason that the Obama
administration had made agriculture and food
security a priority.

“By improving agriculture we can together strike a
powerful blow against both hunger and poverty…and
that is why food security is a priority of the
Obama administration; it is both the smart thing
to do and the right thing to do. It is a moral
imperative to help people escape hunger and
poverty, it is an economic imperative to spread
prosperity, create rising incomes, give people the
chance to give their own children a better
future…it is a strategic imperative,” she said.

Source - Daily Graphic

... go Back