107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 102
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring),
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This concurrent resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Hun-
ger to Harvest: Decade of Support for Sub-Saharan Africa
Resolution’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Despite some progress in recent years, sub-
Saharan Africa enters the new millennium with
many of the world’s poorest countries and is the one
region of the world where hunger is both pervasive
and increasing.
(2) Thirty-three of the world’s 41 poorest debt-
or countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and an esti-
mated 291,000,000 people, nearly one-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, double the number of
three decades ago. One child out of seven dies before
the age of five, and one-half of these deaths are due
to malnutrition.
(4) Sub-Saharan Africa is the region in the
world most affected by infectious disease, accounting
for one-half of the deaths worldwide from HIV/
AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and several
other diseases.
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(5) Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70 percent
of adults, and 80 percent of children, living with the
HIV virus, and 75 percent of the people worldwide
who have died of AIDS lived in Africa.
(6) 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 progress for the next genera-
tion, with life expectancy in parts of sub-Saharan
Africa having already decreased by 10–20 years as
a result of AIDS.
(7) Despite these immense challenges, the num-
ber of sub-Saharan African countries that are mov-
ing toward open economies and more accountable
governments has increased, and these countries are
beginning to achieve local solutions to their common
problems.
(8) To make lasting improvements in the lives
of their people, sub-Saharan Africa governments
need support as they act to solve conflicts, make
critical investments in human capacity and infra-
structure, combat corruption, reform their econo-
mies, stimulate trade and equitable economic
growth, and build democracy.
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(9) Despite sub-Saharan Africa’s enormous de-
velopment challenges, United States companies hold
approximately $12,800,000,000 in investments in
sub-Saharan Africa, greater than United States in-
vestments in either the Middle East or Eastern Eu-
rope, and total United States trade with sub-Saha-
ran Africa currently exceeds that with all of the
independent states of the former Soviet Union, in-
cluding the Russian Federation. This economic rela-
tionship could be put at risk unless additional public
and private resources are provided to combat poverty
and promote equitable economic growth in sub-Saha-
ran Africa.
(10) Bread for the World Institute calculates
that the goal of reducing world hunger by one-half
by 2015 is achievable through an increase of
$4,000,000,000 in annual funding from all donors
for poverty-focused development. If the United
States were to shoulder one-fourth of this aid bur-
den—approximately $1,000,000,000 a year—the
cost to each United States citizen would be one
penny per day.
(11) Failure to effectively address sub-Saharan
Africa’s development needs could result in greater
conflict and increased poverty, heightening the pros-
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pect of humanitarian intervention and potentially
threatening a wide range of United States interests
in sub-Saharan Africa.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) the United States should declare ‘‘A Decade
of Support for Sub-Saharan Africa’’;
(2) not later than 90 days after the date of
adoption of this concurrent resolution, the President
should submit a report to Congress setting forth a
five-year strategy, and a ten-year strategy, to
achieve a reversal of current levels of hunger and
poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, including a commit-
ment to contribute an appropriate United States
share of increased bilateral and multilateral poverty-
focused resources for sub-Saharan Africa, with an
emphasis on—
(A) health, including efforts to prevent,
treat, and control HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, ma-
laria, and other diseases that contribute to mal-
nutrition and hunger, and to promote maternal
health and child survival;
(B) education, with an emphasis on equal
access to learning for girls and women;