G-8 Leaders Pledge USD 20 bn For Food, Farm Aid

The G8 leaders Friday agreed to raise USD 20 billion for food and agricultural aid to the world's most impoverished countries. US President Obama also said much work remains to be done despite steps forward on economic, environmental and security issues, reported Washington Post.'While our markets are improving and we appear to have averted global collapse, we know that too many people are still struggling,' Obama said, speaking at a news conference after a three-day meeting of the Group of Eight highly industrialized nations. 'Right now, at this defining moment, we face a choice. We can either shape our future or let events shape it for us.' Obama called the agreement on food aid among the most significant achievements at the summit. He also singled out actions to combat nuclear proliferation and global warming, efforts to stabilize the global economy, and a joint statement condemning Iran's crackdown on protests after its disputed presidential election last month. 'We remain seriously concerned about the appalling events surrounding the presidential election,' Obama said. 'And we're deeply troubled by the proliferation risks Iran's nuclear program poses to the world.' He said the leaders will 'take stock of Iran's progress' this September at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh, another global summit that will follow a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. At the conclusion of the summit, Obama traveled with his family from this earthquake-ravaged mountain town to Vatican City, where he, first lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. The expanded global commitment on food security -- up from an earlier pledge of $15 billion in aid -- comes as the worldwide recession and high commodity prices have combined to push food prices 40 percent above historical levels. That combination has left as many as 100 million people around the world at risk of tumbling into abject poverty, according to the White House. The Washington Post said, during the discussions on hunger, Obama personalized the appeal for more aid, pointing out to other world leaders in the room that he still has relatives in Kenya who live in villages mired in deep poverty. 'You could have heard a pin drop,' a U.S. official who briefed reporters about the meeting said. Obama said at the news conference that he talked about his father's journey from Kenya to the United States in search of better educational opportunities. At that time, he said, the per capita incomes in Kenya and South Korea were comparable. Since then, South Korea has become a highly industrialized and prosperous country, Obama said, while Kenya and many other developing nations still struggle. 'The question I asked at the meeting was, 'Why is that?' ' Obama said. 'The point I was making is -- my father traveled to the United States a mere 50 years ago and yet now I have family members who live in villages -- they themselves are not going hungry, but live in villages where hunger is real. And so this is something that I understand in very personal terms.' Obama said the next leg of his overseas trip, to Ghana, is intended in part to showcase an African country that has successfully grown its economy while also improving government transparency. The Obama family is scheduled to arrive late tonight in Accra, Ghana's capital, and will likely be greeted by a horde of reporters and crowds of gushing onlookers. During a whistle-stop one-day visit, Obama is expected to meet with Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, visit a hospital, outline his Africa policy in a speech before parliament and tour a coastal fort once used as a warehouse for African slaves destined for the Americas. Accra, a rain-soaked city brimming with pride over being Obama's first sub-Saharan stop as president, has been in an Obama-frenzy all week. Billboards splashed with images of the American president and first lady line its traffic-choked avenues, hawkers are touting U.S. flags and Obama soccer jerseys and radios are pumping with various songs dedicated to Obama and snippets of his speeches. At the G-8 summit, the United States expanded on its earlier commitment to double agricultural development assistance to more than $1 billion in 2010 -- increasing the pledged amount to $3.5 billion by 2012. The leaders made modest progress toward an agreement to battle climate change, by setting long-term targets for reducing carbon emissions, while helping poorer nations reduce their carbon outputs. They also agreed that it is too early to back away from economic stimulus actions taken by individual countries earlier this year during the height of world financial crisis, actions that Obama said kept the world from a global financial collapse. 'Full recovery is still a ways off. . . . It would be premature to begin winding down our stimulus plans,' Obama said. Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, applauded the commitment by the Group of Eight nations to fight hunger through agricultural development. 'In the past, food security was a mere bullet point at the G-8,' he said. 'This time, world leaders have endorsed a concrete and wide-ranging initiative. They have recognized that food security has two dimensions: food aid for critical situations and sustained investment in agriculture to break the poverty cycle.' The Global Partnership aims to make a sustained commitment to agricultural development. Beyond raising money, the effort hopes to better coordinate global food aid efforts and work through initiatives already in place in poor countries around the world, rather than creating new plans.