Bread for the World Urges House Committee to Support U.S. Global Hunger Initiative

Bread for the World Urges House Committee to Support U.S. Global Hunger
Initiative

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bread for the World President
Rev. David Beckmann today urged members of the House Subcommittee on Africa
and Global Health to make ending hunger, child and maternal health, and a
reformed U.S. foreign aid system with an empowered, distinct development voice
their top priorities.

Beckmann, co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN),
testified this morning during a hearing in Congress. He said that over the
past two years, there has been a dramatic increase in hunger as food and fuel
prices rose and the global recession pushed millions of people into extreme
poverty. "I am heartened that the Obama administration recognizes that in
addition to addressing emergency needs, we must also focus on creating
long-term sustainable solutions to ending hunger and poverty," he said.

Beckmann expressed his strong support for the U.S. Global Hunger and Food
Security Initiative, calling it "a tremendous first step toward a global
initiative that rallies the support of governments and people around the
world." He praised the principles of the initiative, which form a blueprint
for broader reform of U.S. foreign assistance. The principles include
country-led plans, enhanced strategic coordination, and transparent and
accountable evaluation systems.

Beckmann also praised the inclusion of improving maternal and child nutrition
in the administration's plan. "The long-term damage inflicted by
undernutrition on young children is a moral outrage," he said. "Focusing our
agriculture and food security investments on improving the nutrition of women
and children will shape better, more targeted programs that have a lasting
development impact."

Beckmann stressed that the primary measures of success of the initiative must
be reductions in poverty and in maternal and child undernutrition.

While commending the administration's leadership on global food security and
global health, Beckmann emphasized the importance of broader foreign
assistance reform to ensure that these initiatives have a lasting impact for
poor people.

"A substantial majority of U.S. voters favor spending more on effective
programs to reduce hunger, poverty and disease in developing countries. It's
the right thing to do and the smart thing to do," Beckmann said. "If this
administration and Congress manage to improve the effectiveness of our
outdated U.S. foreign assistance system, our dollars will do more good for
decades to come."

Bread for the World (www.bread.org) is a collective Christian voice urging our
nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.

SOURCE Bread for the World

Bill Malone, +1-202-464-8180, bmalone@bread.org, or Shawnda Hines,
+1-202-509-3674, shines@bread.org, both of Bread for the World