IV
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 102
Relating to efforts to reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 4, 2001
Mr. LEACH (for himself and Mr. PAYNE) submitted the following concurrent
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Relating to efforts to reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa.
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring),
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This concurrent resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Hun-
ger to Harvest Resolution: A Decade of Concern for Afri-
ca’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Despite progress in recent years, sub-Saha-
ran Africa enters the new millennium with many of
the world’s poorest countries and is the one area of
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the world where hunger is both pervasive and in-
creasing.
(2) 33 of the world’s 41 poorest debtor coun-
tries are in sub-Saharan Africa, and approximately
291,000,000 individuals in sub-Saharan Africa,
nearly half of sub-Saharan Africa’s total population,
currently live in extreme poverty on less than $1 a
day.
(3) One in three people in sub-Saharan Africa
is chronically undernourished, and the number of
chronically undernourished people in the region has
doubled in the past three decades. One child out of
every seven dies before his or her fifth birthday, and
one-half of these deaths are due to malnutrition.
(4) Sub-Saharan Africa is the region in the
world most affected by global infectious disease, ac-
counting for one-half of infectious disease-caused
deaths worldwide, according to a January 2000 re-
port by the Central Intelligence Agency. Deaths
from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and
several other diseases in sub-Saharan Africa exceed
those in all other regions.
(5) Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70 percent
of adults and 80 percent of children living with the
HIV virus, and to three-quarters of the people
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worldwide who have died of AIDS since the epidemic
began.
(6) According to the World Bank, the HIV/
AIDS pandemic has erased many of the development
gains of the past generation in sub-Saharan Africa
and now threatens to undermine economic and social
prospects for the next generation, with life expect-
ancy in parts of sub-Saharan Africa having already
decreased on average by 10-20 years as a result of
AIDS.
(7) Despite these development challenges, the
number of sub-Saharan African countries that are
moving toward open economies and more account-
able government has increased, and these countries
are together beginning to establish local solutions to
the problems of the region.
(8) To make lasting improvements in the lives
of their people, sub-Saharan African governments
need to be supported as they take meaningful steps
to reduce conflict, advance economic reform, stimu-
late growth, improve governance, and make essential
investments in people and infrastructure.
(9) Notwithstanding sub-Saharan Africa’s enor-
mous development challenges, United States compa-
nies hold approximately $15,000,000,000 in invest-
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ments in sub-Saharan Africa, greater than United
States investments in either the Middle East or
Eastern Europe, and total United States trade with
sub-Saharan Africa currently exceeds that with all of
the independent states of the former Soviet Union,
including the Russian Federation. This economic re-
lationship could be put at risk without greater atten-
tion to growth and poverty-focused development in
sub-Saharan Africa.
(10) Bread for the World Institute calculates
that the goal of reducing world hunger in one-half
not later than 2015 is achievable through an in-
crease of $4,000,000,000 in annual funding for ef-
fective, poverty-focused development from all donors.
If the United States were to shoulder one-fourth of
the aid burden—approximately $1,000,000,000 a
year—the obligation of America would amount to a
penny per day per citizen.
(11) According to a recent nationwide poll by
the Program on International Policy Attitudes, 83
percent of Americans think that the United States
should be willing to commit to a joint plan for cut-
ting world hunger by one-half by the year 2015.