It would take no more than $5 billion annually, a fraction of world agricultural subsidies or military spending, to properly feed the world’s 300 million starving children, says the head of the world’s largest food aid agency.
But World Food Program executive director James Morris said in an interview the number of hungry people is growing despite an eight-year-old international commitment to cut hunger in half.
It was 800 million people when the World Food Summit commitment was made in 1996. It now is estimated at 840 million.
“It is shameful,” Morris said during a visit to Ottawa last week. “It is a matter of political will. It could be done if people wanted it done.”
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Every day in the world, 25,000 people die from the effects of malnutrition. Up to 18,000 of those will be children.
Canada’s international co-operation minister Aileen Carroll agreed that the problem can be tackled more forcefully. She said the goal of reducing world poverty by half over the next decade is realistic if governments want it to happen.
“It’s do-able,” she said in an interview. “We have the resources in the world to do that.”
In fact, Canada remains well short of its own goal of spending 0.7 percent of gross domestic product on aid. The Liberals in 1995 slashed the aid budget to little more than 0.2 percent of GDP and nine years later, the aid budget has not yet reached 0.3 percent of GDP.
“We’ve had an eight percent increase in our development budget,” said Carroll. “We’re going to double our aid budget by the year 2010. Is that 0.7 percent? No. Does it mean we’ve come a long way? Yes.”
Critics note that the “long way” applies only when compared to 1995. In the 1960s and 1970s, the relative value of Canada’s aid and development budget was much closer to the 0.7 percent target.
Morris of the United Nations food program was in no mood to criticize Canada for falling short of its target.
He said Canada remains one of the world’s most generous donors, helping to feed the starving in North Korea, sending funds to the Darfur region of Sudan and helping distribute food in Afghanistan.
“I’m profoundly grateful to Canada,” Morris said. “Because of Canada, an added 500,000 schoolchildren are being fed in Africa and how you deal with poverty is to make sure that children are fed so they can get an education so they can improve their society.”
He said the trip to Ottawa was primarily to thank Canadians for their generosity.
It also was to remind the country that poverty, famine and war are relentless.
“I’m hopeful all of our important donors will find the will and resources to do more,” said Morris. “There is always a need. But Canada can be proud that it is a very generous supporter of development.”
