the meeting of the subcommittee on africa and global health welcome to water let me welcome everyone here this morning and thank you for joining us at this hearing of the subcommittee on africa and global he but it's critically important hearing and titled a call to action on food security administration's global strategy number of page oh and i'm sure you'll hear from each of the witnesses about the growing number and the concern but the number of people who go hungry each day and numbers vary but we know that it is climbed and our estimate is say that  it's shocking that one billion people as a result of food and economic crisis are going hungry during the course of the year over the last two years and the situation unfortunately contrary to our goals of millennium challenge are going in the opposite direction the number of people is astonishing moreover the united nations secretary general perhaps nothing more important than we can be discussing this morning and what the united states is planning to do to address food insecurity of nearly one sixth of the world's population this hearing is the latest in a series of close to a half dozen hearings on food security and food assistance that this subcommittee has held in the past two years the last last year it was held on june fourth of this year focused on a role local and regional l r p s can play in enhancing our aid effectiveness today's hearing will discuss the u s global hunger and food security initiative with sen secretary of state hillary clinton on the veil at the united nations general assembly this past september following senator clinton's announcement the state department released rapp document which outlines the administration's strategy whose goals are to substantially reduce chronic congar raise incomes of rural poor and reduce the number of children suffering from under nutrition this is a welcome paragon shifts back to strong and vestments and agricultural development and this maine's that there will be our goal to increase food security and as a critical element of long term sustainable development in poor regions of the world particularly in africa and that's really where we have to focus you can feed people forever but you have to deal with the root causes of the problem i commend president obama for encouraging this bold step and secretary clinton who has taken on this as a major priority of her administration and has assigned her own chief of staff counselor cheryl mills to lead up italy where countries agreed to twenty billion dollars over three years towards a global partnership for agriculture and food security this partnership will focus on promoting sustainable agricultur productivity and rural economic growth last month the g twenty in pittsburgh reaffirm these commitments and called for the establishment of a world bank food security trust fund to finance medium and long term investments in agricultural productivity and market access in low income countries the administration's food security initiative therefore will work in tandem with the global partnership and i think it is important to point out that both the u s and the global initiative stress the assistance provided through these programs which will be complimentary to the ongoing emergency food assistance the emphasis on agricultural production and rural development does not a minute too soon something that we should have really been focusing on in the past because according to the food and agricultural organization of the united nations it will take a seventy percent increase in global food production a feed the world's population by twenty fifty when the world's population is expected to be one point nine billion due to both population growth and rising emphasized particularly in the administration's strategy on the role of women and the importance of empowering them with education tools and assistance they need to make as we know they are the majority of the small farmers the smallholder farmers and they are the engines of development in every society and i think that's very clear and that's been a proven fact for decades while the u s initiative is welcome th and what recommendations we might have to further develop it as we evolve with this policy let me remind us that it comes as no surprise that with the levels of poverty that exists in a world today that the number of people cannot afford to grow or buy the food they need to live healthy productive lives have dramatically increased according to unicef twenty five thousand children die every day due to poverty this on cons and in must change this is simply wrong we can and must do more to end poverty it is a simple a moral imperative i sincerely thank the panel augustin says four testimony that we will hear before us today and sharing your insights and each one of your experts in your own way and we would like to see how we can move forward as we address this very important issue following remarks from the ranking member and if any other members come then i'll introduce the witnesses and we'll proceed with their testimony like mr smith thank you very much as chairman and i want to thank you for calling this expect very important and timely hearing designed to examine the administration's recently released consultation document their propose d strategy to achieve global food security cordons the u n food and agricultural organization people are food insecure when they do not have enough physical social or economic access to sufficient safe nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life the f a s two thousand i report quote the food of insecurity in the world states that the decline in the numbers of chronically hungry hungry people that was occurring some twenty years ago has been reversed largely due to available official developmental systems devoted to ag agriculture that an unfortunate policy outcome combined with the current global food economic crisis resulted in an estimated one billion undernourished people around the world the majority of those who lack food security an estimated six hundred forty two million live in asia and the pacific sub saharan africa also has a large number at two hundred sixty five million and has the highest prevalence at one out of every three persons undernourished it is disturbing to note that developed countries are not immune from this deficiency we have around fifteen million people living in our midst who are food insecure it is shocking to hear that hunger and under nutrition kill more people globally than an hiv aids malaria and tuberculosis combined hunger and malnutrition are the underlying causes of death over three point five million children every year more than ten thousand children each day poor households in the developing countries currently are facing a particularly to setting challenge to food security for two reasons one is the global nature of the economic crisis which reduces the availability of coping mechanisms such as currents the evaluation borrowing or increased use the v a or migrant remittances that would otherwise be available of only certain region or regions were impacted another izzie the food crisis that preceded the economic crisis which had already placed poor households in a weak position several initiatives initiatives have been announced over the past few months to galvanize international action to address this crisis the global partnership for agriculture and food security was announced at the g eight summit in italy in july in which summit leaders of other countries and organizations  stablished a goal of mobilizing as you pointed out twenty billion dollars over the next three years in particular to promote sustainable production productivity and rural economic growth and additional countries have since pledged an additional two billion dollars to this effort unfortunately there are reports that about one half to two thirds of that commitment is actually existing aid that has merely been packaged the g twenty s pittsburgh however in september endorsed the initiative embraced by the g eight and also called for an establishment of a world food security trust fund the purpose of this fund will be to boost agricultural productivity and market access in low income countries by financing medium and long term investment later that month the united nations secretary general and secretary of state hillary clinton issued a joint statement which they agreed to pay build upon the global partnership initiated in italy the secretary of state also released a consultation document at the end of september seeking the views of numerous interested parties with respect to a proposed strategy to address global hunger and food security i commend secretary for emphasizing the importance of input from small scale farmers and related agricultural producers in consultation process we are here today to examine this initiative and hear from the government accountability office and our other very distinguished witnesses on the panel and again i look forward to hearing your insights as we craft this strategy back thank you very much mr smith and i'd like to introduce work involving multilateral organizations and international finance over the last ten years documenting it all has been focusing on a wide range of development issues including debt relief for poor countries international food security and human trafficking as part human trafficking portfolio documents lead a review of u s government and international efforts to monitor and evaluate their international programs and projects since two thousand managed in economics from columbia university and a b s in industrial labor relations from cornell university second witness will be dr helene gayle dr gail is president and chief executive officer of care usa she has one of the world's premier international humanitarian organizations dr gail spent twenty years with the centers for disease control focusing primarily on combating h she has published numerous scientific articles and has been featured in media outlets as diverse in new york times washington post glamour o magazine ladies tell me that's important  julie howard dr howard since two thousand and three has served as executive director of the partnership to cut hunger and poverty in africa and independent nonprofit called ition dedicated to increasing the l the university of california davis and b a and international affairs from george washington university just carried out research and written on agricultural technology development and transfer and with alexander a love now is the time a plan to cut hunger and poverty in africa two thousand and two not to have it also serves as an adjunct assistant professor of development at michigan state university now have no stranger united states and worldwide he has been president of bread for the world for fifteen years leading large scale and successful campaigns of strength and us political commitment to hunger and poverty before that he served at the world bank for fifteen years and back when has was one of the prime movers to have legislation passed and kept the u s focused on supporting the millennium challenge goals in two thousand when there was some wavering but in two thousand and five as a matter of fact when it was thought that the united states might move back from its commitment of two thousand  institutions to build political support that will and hunger the backbone is also president of bread for the world institute which does research and education on poverty and development back man as a lutheran clergyman as well as an economist earning degrees from yale christ seminary and the london school of economics he has written many books and articles including transforming the politics of hunger and grace at the table and then hunger and god's world last but not least we have mr richard lee mr leach serves as a senior advisor for a s public policy for friends of the world food program he established the organization in nineteen ninety seven in two thousand and three and four he directed a global initiative to address tobacco use on that very important committee he has also served as a senior advisor to the world health organization and is a member of the american bar association's task force on reforming reform of the united nations commission on human rights hundred ninety three was appointed by the clinton administration to direct the nationwide campaign to increase childhood immunization rates and later transformed the campaign operation into a branch of the united states center for disease control and prevention and we know how important immunization is with the epidemics that we've see in recent history mr leach practiced law from eighty six the nineteenth service chairman of the board of directors of the american lung association for the district of columbia from zero four to zero six and is currently a member of the board of directors of the united milo chronic the whole disease foundation at this time we will start with our first witness dr m alito is the chairman and members of the subcommittee i am pleased to be here to discuss the extent to which host governments and donors including the united states are working to improve global food security this problem is especially severe in sub saharan africa with one out of every three people considered undernourished worldwide the number of undernourished people has been growing and now exceeds one billion at the largest world's food summit when the united states and more than one hundred eighty nations pledged to have the total number of undernourished people worldwide by twenty fifteen in recent years is issued a number of reports on international food assistance issues that made recommendations to improve u s food aid and global food security my statement today is based on our may two thousand and eight report and on recent and ongoing work i will focus on two topics the host government and donor efforts to have hunger especially in sub saharan africa by twenty fifteen second i will discuss the status of u s agencies implementation of geragos two thousand and eight recommendations to enhance efforts to address global food security regarding the first objective we found that host governments and donors including the united states have made little progress and having hunger for three key reasons first host governments in sub saharan africa africa have not prioritized food security as a development goal and as of two thousand and seven only eight countries had to filled a two thousand and three pledge to direct ten percent of government spending to agriculture that data represent an increase of four additional countries that met the pledge between two thousand and five two thousand and seven second donor aid directed toward agriculture was declining until about two thousand and five third u s efforts to reduce hunger especially in sub saharan africa focused primarily on emergency food aid and had not addressed the underlying factors that contributed to their recurrence and severity however to reverse the declining trend in funding in july two thousand and nine the group of eight agreed to a twenty billion dollars three year commitment to increase assistance for global food security the u s share of this commitment is about three point four billion dollars which includes about one point four billion in fiscal year twenty ten representing more than double the fiscal year two thousand and nine budget request regarding our second objective in our may two thousand and eight report we recommended first the development of an integrated government wide u s strategy that the find each agency's actions with specific timeframes and resource commitments enhanced collaboration with host governments and other donors improves measures to buy out of the progress and second report annually to congress on the in taishan of this recommendation consistent with our first recommendation u s agencies are in the process of developing a government wide strategy to achieve global food security with the launching of a global of a future curity initiative in april two thousand and nine the new administration created the interagency policy committee in late september two thousand a nine state issued a consultation document that delineates a proposed comprehensive approach to food security although the document outlines broad objectives and principles it has not yet evolved into the g integrated government wide strategy that we call for in a two thousand and eight recommendation such a strategy would define each agency's actions and risk the resource commitments to achieve global food security it to promote improved collaboration with host governments and other donors and include measures to monitor and evaluate progress toward implementing the strategy regarding our second recommendation you see it officials stated that they plan to update congress  progress toward implementation of such a strategy as part of the agency two thousand and eight initiative and hunger rip it africa report which is expected to be released in the near future however as we concluded in our may two thousand and eight report this effort does not comprehensively address the underlying causes of food security nor this is leverage the full extent of u s assistance across all agencies finally in response to requests from chairwoman rosa de lauro we are currently conducting a review of u s efforts to address global food insecurity we plan to report on the nature and scope of u s food security programs and the status of u s agency's ongoing efforts to develop an integrated government wide strategy to address thank you chairman payne and representative smith members of the subcommittee i want to thank you for this opportunity to give brief comments on global hunger and food security and the administration's food security initiative we applaud the initiative of the  administration and your own longstanding leadership on this issue i speak today on behalf of care a humanitarian organization that fights poverty and and its causes and nearly seventy countries around the world as an organization our very roots are intertwined with this issue since we began our work providing care packages care packages of food to people devastated by the effects of world war two our over sixty years of global experience convinces us that we can and extreme hunger and food insecurity around the world if we put in place the right resources the right strategy and have a sustained commitment to do so last year global crisis brought much attention to world the issue of world hunger we need to maintain that focus because that crisis is more than just last year a spike and now to make matters worse climate change poses an additional threat to the international community's efforts to reduce chronic hunger care strongly supports the principles outlined in the administration's food security initiative and believes that a country led collaborative approach that addresses the underlying causes of hunger is critical we also support an increased focus  being placed on agricultural productivity both here in congress and the administration that said while agricultural development is a critical element of a successful food security initiative it's not enough to assume that improved agriculture alone will achieve food security a comprehensive initiative to combat global hunger and in our food security must include flexible food assistance of focus on gender social safety nets and nutritional support let me just take a few moments to talk about each of these births flexibility there is no one size fits all solution the effectiveness of both short term emergency aid and long term development programs could be greatly improved donors would allow countries and the organizations working with them to choose the most appropriate cost effective approach to responding to any given food security situation practitioners should be free to use imported food aid when it's most appropriate free to purchase local food or food locally originally when that would be more appropriate and free to use cash transfers vouchers cash for work and other non food interventions when those are most appropriate decisions about whether to distribute vouchers local originally purchased food or food security in the united states should be based on two factors local market conditions and local or regional availability of food in sufficient quantity and quality to meet local needs when food is locally available when markets work well and food is locally available in sufficient quantity and quality transfer there vouchers are generally the most efficient when food is is locally available but markets do not phone function well direct distribution of local recently purchased food is likely to be the most appropriate form and were food is not locally originally available in sufficient quantity and quality  shipping food may be called for however we want to note that shipping food from the united states to developing countries is slow expensive and unpredictable the cost of this tied food aid has been shown to be sufficiently higher in many cases thirty to fifty percent higher than alternative non tied food aid and can take as much as three times longer to get food to the people who need it most the united states is now spending twenty times as much on food aid in africa as it is spending to help african farmers grow their own food we also mean believe that this means moving away from the practice of monetization a practice that our organization is phasing out of because of its inefficiency and risks to local agricultural productivity gender as has been mentioned by both of you we've believe it's important to place a special emphasis on investing in girls and women because it's clear that's the best way to benefit families and move entire communities out of poverty however women have not been taken into consideration when programs and policies related to food security are developed rural women produce half of the world's food and in developing countries between sixty and eighty percent of food crops only on one percent of farmland if we are going to have an impact on improving food security and agricultural productivity it's important that women be placed at the heart of those policies and that we make sure that any food policy and initiatives towards food insecurity address gender specific barriers to excessive education credit and land tenure social safety nets we're pleased that this is one of the three key objectives of the administration's comprehensive approach to increase the impact of humanitarian food assistance and social safety net we must help countries create social safety nets that prevent people in the margins from falling into extreme poverty and we put in our written statement many examples of how social protective safety nets have made a huge difference and making sure that those who are living on the margins of poverty or who  already in poverty don't fall further behind because of lack of access to important social safety net and ways of mitigating the negative impacts of poverty and food  security if we can help prevent people who experience extreme poverty fall further and further behind we can have a greater impact on moving them towards greater food self sufficiency and finally let me just touch on the issue of nutrition hunger and malnutrition are the primary risks to global health is as has been previously fading killing more people than aids malaria and tuberculosis combined additionally chronically malnourished children are unable to develop their cognitive capacities adequately thus reducing their ability to learn at school and compete later as adults in the marketplace we suggest that nutritional impact play a key role in the food security initiative and the nutritional assessment is used as a key indicator of the initiative effectiveness just in closing mr chairman and members of the committee you have an opportunity to make an extraordinary difference throughout the world by taking bold action to advance a comprehensive global hunger and food security initiative that takes flexibility gender equality social safety net and nutrition into consideration as secretary clinton said when she unveiled the administration initiative the question is not whether we can end hunger it is whether we will the time to act is now this hearing is an important step we ask this committee to mark up global hunger and food security legislation  the global food security act three zero seven seven and the roadmap to end global hunger twenty eight seventeen and stay the course towards comprehensive flexible food security policies