The briefing was sponsored by the Congressional Hunger Center and co-organized by the Congressional Hunger Center and Save the Children, US Congressional sponsors were Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) & Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Hunger Center Board of Directors.

How can U.S. emergency food assistance be used to not only save lives during severe food crises, but also serve as an engine of long-term growth to strengthen poor communities against future famine? This question was the central theme of a briefing provided to Members of Congress and their staff on Wednesday, October 15, on Capitol Hill.

In observance of World Food Day, the Congressional Hunger Center (CHC) sponsored and co-organized the briefing, using a panel of expert to explain how food aid can both save lives and strengthen communities against long-term hunger. The event also served to highlight the current famine taking place in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where close to 16 million men, women and children in the region are at risk of severe malnutrition and death as a result of prolonged drought and lack of long-term investments in agriculture, health, sanitation and education.

The briefing was moderated by Representative James McGovern (D-MA) who introduced the panel and provided introductory remarks. The expert panelists included Lauren Landis, the Director of USAID’s Office of Food for Peace, Dennis Walto, Ethiopia Field Office of Save the Children US, Rick Leach, Director of Friends of the UN World Food Program, and Doug Norell, Director of Legislative Affairs at Catholic Relief Services. A short video on uses of US food aid by non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) was shown and can be viewed on the internet at: http://www.savethechildren.org/food_security/index.asp

Representative McGovern noted the long-term support from the US government for the Horn of Africa, and credited Representative Frank Wolf’s January, 2003, report on the crisis with focusing more attention and mobilizing relief efforts in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, the situation continues to threaten millions of lives. The region’s severe drought has caused crop failure and livestock deaths, and many people have been forced to sell off their meager assets to survive. McGovern hailed the panel as representatives of the best efforts of the US public and private sectors to assist Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The first panelist, Lauren Landis, discussed the major role played by the US government since the crisis began. In one year, the US shipped one million metric tons of food aid to a single country—Ethiopia. This major mobilization of food was even more dramatic than the already significant amount of food aid sent to six countries in southern Africa, totaling 500,000 metric tons in a 12 month period. Landis credited the immediate dispatch of food aid as the reason that a massive famine was averted in both southern Africa and in Ethiopia. However, she recognized that food aid does not solve the problem of chronic hunger, which can only be addressed through a comprehensive program to improve education, health and economic growth. USAID is now pursuing an integrated approach to breaking the cycle of poverty in Ethiopia. USAID works in partnership with private voluntary agencies (PVO’s) such as Save the Children, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, CARE, and Project Mercy, and with multilateral agencies such as the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to avert famine and to promote longer-term sustainable solutions to hunger.

The second panelist, Dennis Walto of Save the Children, focused on how Ethiopia and Eritrea today comprise the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, though the situation has fallen off the world’s radar screen. In Ethiopia alone, 14 million people are in need of immediate food assistance, and over half of these are children under the age of fifteen years. Walto remarked that the most dangerous place in the world to be a two-year old child is Ethiopia, since children between two and five years of age are the first casualties of famine. They are too old to be breast-fed and too young to get adequate nourishment from the family’s sparse meals. Due to chronic malnutrition, two-thirds of Ethiopian children suffer some kind of deficiency, and one out of ten babies will die before its first birthday. Walto also remarked that despite the cycles of drought, many Ethiopians are coping and the emergency food aid is a good resource to be used in a variety of ways, such as in food for work and school feeding programs. Some 50 million Ethiopians do not require emergency food aid, so while the situation is critical for the most impoverished, the multi-sectoral food security programs supported by developmental food aid are providing a safety net for many.

Rick Leach from the Friends of the UN World Food Program described the benefits of school feeding programs, and praised Rep. McGovern for his leadership in passing the McGovern-Dole Global Food for Education program. According to Leach, school feeding programs offer the greatest long-term impacts in a food aid program because the program keeps children, especially girls, in school. Numerous studies have proven that when girls are educated, they have fewer and more healthy children and provide their children with better nutrition and opportunities in life. School feeding programs also are a vehicle for HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Finally, Leach stated that school feeding can play an important role in fighting terrorism and reducing conflict, because many radical groups recruit child fighters with food.

Doug Norell of CRS put a human face on hunger by noting that the number of people at risk in Ethiopia equals the entire population of the Los Angeles metro area (14 million). Around the world, the number of hungry and chronically malnourished people equals the population of India (~1 billion). He noted that the Farm Bill incorporated many suggestions by the PVO community to improve Title II of Food for Peace, the US Government’s primary food aid program, by insisting that it be based upon need (rather than excess US commodities) and that the program devote up to 75% of its resources to development activities, rather than emergency assistance. Food aid alone is not enough—even developmental food programs must be viewed as a complementary bridge to subsequent programs of agricultural improvement, rural development, health and water and sanitation programs, and community education and microfinance projects. Short-term famine relief must also be buttressed by the provision of clean water and medicines because most people suffering from food shortages die of disease, rather than from hunger.

The question and answer section of the briefing provided an excellent opportunity for exchange between the audience and the panelists. A member of the audience asked about how improved seed varieties, such as the recent initiative by Monsanto to enrich the nutritional content of maize, might be an answer for some of Africa’s hunger problems. The panelists responded that while such improved seed varieties provide promise, there is no silver bullet solution. The best option is to provide agricultural improvements within a comprehensive framework of rural investments, infrastructure repair, health and sanitation improvements, and irrigation and microfinance opportunities. Panelists also gave examples of project interventions and emphasized the important role that cash plays in successful food security programs. Monetization (selling food aid commodities locally to raise cash resources) allows developmental food aid programs to support all components of the integrated strategies that have proven success. NGO’s work directly with communities and other local partners to increase community capacity to withstand crisis and address the root causes of chronic hunger and malnutrition.

Another member of the audience remarked that while funding has been trending upward for food aid, most of this increase has resulted from supplemental spending for emergencies in southern Africa and elsewhere. The overall priorities are still on emergency food aid, not food for development. An example of this lack of interest in developmental food aid programs is the decline in funding for the McGovern-Dole Global Food for Education Initiative. Initially funded at $300 million for a pilot stage, the FY 2004 budget request from the Bush Administration has now fallen to $50 million. The sad outcome of this slash in funding means that several million extremely needy children worldwide will now no longer receive the same school meal they received last year. The failure to fully allocate funding for Title II development programs also sends a message that the US cannot fulfill its commitments to the poorest of the poor, in countries where HIV/AIDS has created an entire new generation of orphans. Panelists emphasized the importance of developmental food aid and school feeding programs as an important part of the US security strategy.

The right kinds of food aid can indeed save lives, strengthen communities, and can stimulate growth needed to help a country towards eventual self-sufficiency. The Bush administration and the U.S. Congress must work together to streamline US programs, provide substantial funding increases to programs with a proven track record of success, and, most importantly, provide hope to the billion people living in extreme poverty around the world.