SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
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2006
THE WORLD HUNGER CRISIS
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
MAY 25, 2006
Serial No. 109–191
Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
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Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey,
Vice Chairman
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
DARRELL ISSA, California
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JERRY WELLER, Illinois
MIKE PENCE, Indiana
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THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan
KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida
JOE WILSON, South Carolina
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina
CONNIE MACK, Florida
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
MICHAEL McCAUL, Texas
TED POE, Texas
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
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GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
ADAM SMITH, Washington
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
DENNIS A. CARDOZA, California
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California,
Vice Chairman
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
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DIANE E. WATSON, California
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
MARY M. NOONAN, Subcommittee Staff Director
GREG SIMPKINS, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member
NOELLE LUSANE, Democratic Professional Staff Member
SHERI A. RICKERT, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member and Counsel
LINDSEY M. PLUMLEY, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
WITNESSES
Mr. James T. Morris, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Program
The Honorable Michael E. Hess, Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development
The Honorable Tony P. Hall, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture
Mr. Sean Callahan, Vice President, Overseas Operations, Catholic Relief Services
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Mr. Gabriel Laizer, Beneficiary of School Feeding Program, Tanzania
Mr. Gawain Kripke, Senior Policy Advisor, Oxfam America
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations: Prepared statement
Mr. James T. Morris: Prepared statement
The Honorable Barbara Lee, a Representative in Congress from the State of California: Prepared statement
The Honorable Michael E. Hess: Prepared statement
The Honorable Tony P. Hall: Prepared statement
Mr. Sean Callahan: Prepared statement
Mr. Gabriel Laizer: Prepared statement
Mr. Gawain Kripke: Prepared statement
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APPENDIX
Responses from the Honorable Tony P. Hall to questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Barbara Lee
Responses from Mr. Gawain Kripke to questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Barbara Lee
THE WORLD HUNGER CRISIS
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2006
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights
and International Operations,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:03 a.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building. Hon. Christopher H. Smith (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. SMITH. The Subcommittee will convene, and we are actually doing this in two parts. We will begin first with a briefing, and we are delighted to have a distinguished representative of the United Nations here to speak to us, and we will then convene a hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations.
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Today our Subcommittee is examining the enormous need for food around the world, particularly in Subsaharan Africa, which has the greatest need. As an essential element for life the assurance of food availability must necessarily be a focal point of our humanitarian assistance, and at the forefront of our interventions on behalf of those in the greatest need.
While the extent of that need can at times be overwhelming, we must keep in mind the verses of Matthew 25, when our Lord said, ''As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did likewise to me.'' And he also said in that same passage that whatever you didn't do to the least of my brethren, you likewise did to me.
Sean Callahan, the Vice President of Overseas Operations for Catholic Relief Services, will say in his testimony later on in this hearing that we face a severe challenge in responding to the grim requirements posed by global hunger.
The United Nations, as he points out, estimates that 852 million people are undernourished worldwide. According to the USDA, 83 million people live on less than eleven hundred calories a day. Six million people will die of hunger-related causes this year alone.
According to the United Nations, 25,000 people a day die of hunger-related causes. They are too weak to fight off flu, or the effects of diarrhea. There are underweight infants and overwhelmed mothers. They die quietly off camera, unnoticed by the rest of the world.
Last year, I, along with Greg Simpkins, of our Africa Subcommittee staff, visited Kalma and Mukjar refugee camps in South and West Darfur. We saw firsthand how food aid was making a profound difference between life and death for the thousands of people in those camps.
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We spoke with many people whose lives have been utterly devastated by the ravages of war, but who are keeping hope alive thanks to the gifts of the international humanitarian aid and food aid.
However, our visits to these camps raise a question that I hope will be answered in today's hearing. What is the Government of Sudan, as well as other developing country governments, going to do about contributing to the elimination of hunger by opening their own stocks of food, or by facilitating rather than hampering, the delivery of food to hungry people in their countries?
We all remember how Mengistu used to put a level on food and grains coming into his country during the crisis in Ethiopia previously. In the Sudan, the government has not only failed to contribute to the feeding of its own people, but has actually interfered with the supply of food to those in need in the Darfur camps like the ones we visited. Moreover, the government of Sudan placed a commercial embargo on Kalma camp while we were there that prevented the sale of food and other items, necessary items, to those to be able to buy them in the camps themselves.
We in the developed world should help feed those in need, but it is also the responsibility of the governments in question to respond to the needs of their own people, and more pressure needs to be brought to bear there.
The United Nations World Food Program has announced that almost 731,000 metric tons of food will be needed this year to feed the 6.1 million people caught in the conflict in Southern Sudan and Darfur.
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Over 89,000 metric tons is needed in Eastern Chad for Sudanese refugees. Chadian nationals adversely affected by the influx of refugees, and a contingency reserve of 6 months for the refugees.
An estimated 6.25 million people in the Horn of Africa face a severe humanitarian crisis this year, resulting primarily from successive seasons of failed rains in that region.
The World Food Program has sent out appeals for approximately 1.6 million metric tons of food for the Horn of Africa and the rest of Subsahara. This does not include, of course, the emergency food aid needs of people in other parts of the world, including Haiti, North Korea, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, to name a few.
It is important to keep in mind that behind these mindboggling numbers are real men, women, and children, people like you and me, individuals who are suffering not only from the present pangs of hunger, but who will have to live with the long term effects of mal- and under-nutrition.
There are also those for whom the lack of food exacerbates the cruel effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, thereby increasing the likelihood of death. This is the reason why it is so important for us to examine the crisis of world hunger, and to continue to direct and expand our efforts to address it.
I am proud to say that we as Americans continue our long tradition of compassion and generosity in responding to these needs. But obviously we need to do more as well. The United States is the primary donor of food aid in the world, and the leading donor of food aid in Sudan and Chad.
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The United States Government has contributed a total of $282 million worth of food aid thus far in 2006 to Darfur, and the Sudanese refugees in Chad through the World Food Program and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
This follows contributions totaling $324 million to the same two organizations in 2005 for Sudan and Chad, in addition to 200,000 tons of wheat from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust for Darfur.
The United States is also addressing the nutritional needs of particularly vulnerable populations. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief maximizes leverage with other donors, including USAID and USDA, and the World Food Program, with United States financial support, to address the needs of HIV-affected communities, both in terms of providing direct food assistance, and in addressing the underlying causes of food and security.
We look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses today about the hunger crisis in our world, and what is being done to respond, and recommendations as to how we can respond better.
But we will also consider the contribution that the United States food aid makes to longer term non-emergency development goals, and the corresponding impact that this food aid has on individual lives.
The most recent data indicates that over 4 million children in 26 countries participated in the McGovern-Dole international food for education, and child nutrition programs in fiscal years 2003 and 2004.
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This program has resulted in higher school enrollment, and improved access to education, especially for girls. It is also reported by teachers and program administrators that the FFE program has increased local communities concern for and participation in their children's education.
There is a general improvement in academic performance as children are better able to concentrate after receiving a nutritious school lunch. Both families and the school community benefit from training on food preparation, health, and hygiene.
In this regard, we will have the benefit of hearing today from Mr. Gabriel Laizer, who now works on international development issues for the Alliance to End Hunger, and who started his career as a beneficiary of a feeding program in the primary school in Tanzania.
Finally, my good friend and colleague for many, many years, Tony Hall, former Member of the House, and a distinguished Member from Ohio, who just recently left his position as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, will also be testifying.
He has published a book recently, entitled, Changing the Face of Hunger, which I highly recommend and which recounts many stories from Ambassador Hall's years of confronting hunger, poverty, and oppression, throughout the world.
In his conclusion, he writes:
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''When you show Americans the poor and the hungry, when you connect with them and educate them, and they see the problems themselves, they don't turn their backs. They want to help. They respond.''
''We are a compassionate people,'' he goes on to say, ''a giving people. We care.''
In that spirit of compassion, I would ask my colleagues of Congress to continue to support the 2003 emergency supplemental appropriations of $350 million for food aid, while encouraging other international donors to respond in a likewise generous manner.
We must continue to help, to respond, and in the words of Tony Hall, show that we care. It is my hope and expectation that in this hearing today that we may further educate ourselves, our colleagues in the Congress, and the American public, about the poor and the hungry, that we may respond with compassion that is so desperately needed.
At this time, I would like to yield to my good friend and colleague, Mr. Payne, for any opening comments that he might have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
I am pleased to convene this hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations. The Subcommittee today is examining the enormous need for food aid around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa which has the greatest need. As an essential element for life, the assurance of food availability must necessarily be a focal point of our humanitarian assistance programs and at the forefront of our interventions on behalf of those in the greatest need. While the extent of that need can at times be overwhelming, we must keep in mind the verses of Matthew 25, ''as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,'' and ''as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.''
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Last August, I, along with Greg Simpkins of the Africa Subcommittee staff, visited Kalma and Mukjar refugee camps in South and West Darfur. We saw first hand how food aid was making the difference between life and death for the thousands of people in the camps. We spoke with many people whose lives had been utterly devastated by the ravages of war, but who were keeping hope alive thanks to the gifts of international humanitarian aid and food aid.
However, our visit to these camps raised a question that I hope will be answered in today's hearing. What is the Government of Sudan, as well as other developing country governments, going to do about contributing to the elimination of hunger by opening their own stocks of food or by facilitating, rather than hampering, the delivery of food to hungry people in their countries? In Sudan, the government has not only failed to contribute to the feeding of its own people, but has actually interfered with the supply of food to those in need in the Darfur camps like the ones we visited. Moreover, the Government of Sudan placed a commercial embargo on Kalma camp while we were there that prevented the sale of food and other necessary items to those able to buy them in the camps. We in the developed world should help feed those in need, but it also the responsibility of the governments in question to respond to the needs of their own people.
The UN World Food Program has announced that almost 731,000 metric tons of food will be needed this year to feed the 6.1 million people caught in the conflict in Southern Sudan and Darfur. Over 89,000 metric tons is needed Eastern Chad for Sudanese refugees, Chadian nationals adversely affected by the influx of refugees, and a contingency reserve of six months for the refugees. An estimated 6.25 million people in the Horn of Africa face a severe humanitarian crisis this year resulting primarily from successive seasons of failed rains in that region. The World Food Program has sent out appeals for approximately 1.6 million metric tons of food aid for the Horn of Africa and the rest of the sub-Sahara.
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This does not include, of course, the emergency food needs of peoples in other parts of the world, including Haiti, North Korea, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
It is important to keep in mind that behind these mind-boggling numbers are real men, women and children, people like you and me, individuals who are suffering not only the present pangs of hunger but who will have to live with the long-term effects of mal- and under-nutrition. There are also those for whom the lack of food exacerbates the cruel effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, thereby increasing the likelihood of death. This is the reason why it is so important for us to examine the crisis of world hunger, and to continue to direct our efforts to address it.
I am proud to say that we Americans continue our long tradition of compassion and generosity in responding to these needs. The United States is the primary donor of food aid in the world and the leading donor of food aid to Sudan and Chad. The US Government has contributed a total of $282.2 million worth of food aid thus far in FY2006 to Darfur and the Sudanese refugees in Chad through the World Food Program and the International Committee of the Red Cross. This follows contributions totaling $324.5 million to the same two organizations in FY2005 for Sudan and Chad, in addition to 200,000 tons of wheat from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust for Darfur.
The United States is also addressing the nutritional needs of particularly vulnerable populations. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief maximizes leverage with other donors including the USAID, the USDA and the World Food Program (with US financial support) to address the needs of HIV-affected communities, both in terms of providing direct food assistance and in addressing the underlying causes of food insecurity.
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We look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses today about the hunger crises in our world, what is being done to respond, and recommendations as to how we can respond better. But we will also consider the contribution that U.S. food aid makes to longer-term, non-emergency development goals and the corresponding impact that this food aid has on individual lives. The most recent data available indicates that over 4 million children in 26 countries participated in the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program in fiscal years 2003 and 2004. This program has resulted in higher school enrollment and improved access to education, especially for girls.
It is also reported by teachers and program administrators that the FFE program has increased local communities' concern for and participation in their children's education. There is a general improvement in academic performance as children are better able to concentrate after receiving a nutritious school lunch. Both families and the school community benefit from training on food preparation, health and hygiene. In this regard, we will have the benefit of hearing today from Mr. Gabriel Laizer, who now works on international development issues for the Alliance to End Hunger and who started his career as a beneficiary of a feeding program in his primary school in Arusha, Tanzania.
My good friend Tony Hall, a former Member of Congress who just recently left his position as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, will also be testifying. He has published a book recently entitled, ''Changing the Face of Hunger,'' which I highly recommend, and which recounts many stories from Ambassador Hall's years of confronting hunger, poverty and oppression throughout the world. In his conclusion, he writes, ''when you show Americans the poor and the hungry—when you connect with them and educate them and they see the problems themselves—they don't turn their backs. They want to help. They respond. We are a compassionate people, a giving people. We care.''
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In that spirit of compassion, I would ask my colleagues in Congress to continue to support the FY2006 emergency supplemental appropriation of $350 million for food aid. While encouraging other international donors to respond in a likewise generous manner, we must continue to help, to respond, to show that we care.
It is my hope and expectation that with this hearing today, we may further educate ourselves, our colleagues in Congress and the American people about the poor and the hungry, and we may respond with the compassion that they so desperately need.
Mr. PAYNE. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for calling this very important hearing on food security, and I welcome all of the panelists also; to Mr. Morris, from the United Nations World Food Program, who is doing an outstanding job on the world hunger crisis, and of course, as the Chairman indicated; to Tony Hall, one of our former colleagues, who has long been a champion for fighting against hunger while he was here in the Congress, and then as the Ambassador to the World Food Program.
He has done an outstanding job and I had the opportunity to meet with him in Rome several months ago, where he was still pushing for more assistance from around the world. And to the other panelists, we appreciate the world that you and your organizations do.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this very important hearing on the world hunger crisis, and the effectiveness of food programs and food aid. And each day in the developing world nearly 30,000 children under the age of five die from preventable causes, half of them due to hunger.
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There is no reason that in this new millennium that people should still be dying of hunger. There is ample food in the world, but we have a world that is shattered by unshared bread. There is enough food if it is distributed properly so that no one should go to bed hungry, especially to die from hunger.
Hunger worldwide has grown in more than half of the developing countries since 1990, and so rather than getting better as we all thought time would take care of it, we are getting worse. It is absolutely abominable that in a world of high technology, new manners of producing food, new technologies, that half of the developing countries are still in worse shape than they were before.
In fact, the number of hungry people in Subsaharan Africa has jumped 20 percent since 1990. According to the Food and Agricultural Association, the FAAO, 800 million people, including 200 million children in the developing world, go to bed hungry every night.
Half of the people on our planet still live on less than $2.00 a day, and as we talk about how great the United States of America does, and I am very proud to be an American, and what we do. We are not doing nearly enough.
We can do much more, and I think we have to fail from falling into the trap of patting ourselves on the back about what we do. Yes, the rest of the world should do more, but there is no question about the fact that we can do much more.
In Subsaharan African alone, one in three people are malnourished. These numbers are staggering, but they aren't just numbers as the Chairman mentioned also. These are people. These are mothers. These are fathers. These are children. These are grandparents. These are human beings.
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There have been many international meetings around the world dealing with hunger in recent years. These culminated in 1990 in a global commitment to what is literally a half measure. It is a half measure because the goal was to half hunger by 2015.
We really didn't want to take the boast of eliminating hunger by 2015, but let us take half a step and it would be a great goal to half hunger by 2015. So you are almost 50 percent losing even if you reach your goal. We really need to take another look at how this world is run.
As reports coming in suggest, at current rates of progress, we shall fail by a long way. If we stay on the targets that we are on, we won't even half the hunger by 2015. We are off the track already, and if we go at this current rate, it would be about 2025 before we can even half hunger in the world.
And even though 186 countries agreed to the Millennium Development goals which reiterated the call to eradicate extreme hunger by poverty and poverty by 2015, enough simply isn't being done by wealthy nations, and there are many wealthy nations, oil rich countries, that do not do their share at all, in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.
A recent World Bank report stated that the number of major disasters around the world increased from 100 in 1975 to over 400 in 2005. So the world is becoming more fragile. Climate change, deossification, and natural disasters, are factors that contribute to food and security, but human actions, such as conflicts, crippling subsidies to Western farmers, therefore making it impossible for African farmers to compete, and Caribbean farmers to compete, and small farmers in Latin America to compete.
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And the neglect of our agriculture are also critical factors in the declining ability to have sufficient food. The question is what do we do to effectively reduce and ultimately eliminate global hunger.
The United States is the world's largest provider of food aid to the poor nations, and that is to be commended as I mentioned before. Most of this aid goes through the World Food Program, which does an excellent job of addressing food needs in poor nations.
But we have to look more critically at our food assistance programs to figure out how best to deal with emergencies and also build in capacities so that countries can feed themselves and better deal with droughts and other national obstacles.
As a matter of fact, USAID got out of the whole business of agricultural assistance in their programs about 20 years ago, and we see the results because the assistance that was needed to the farming agriculture, which most developing countries are more agriculture than rural, we have failed in that policy change.
There is a well documented dilemma of food aid, that food meant to help hungry people in a certain country or in a region, actually contributes sometimes to problems, which cause the food and security to begin with and end up actually sometimes being a destablizing factor, and hurting people it seems to help in the long run.
When food is brought in, sometimes it then pushes the commodity prices down, and have an over supply. So we have to really be more careful when we do food aid so that it is calculated properly so it does not have the negative effects, and sometimes without it being well planned, it does.
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Africa represents 13 percent of the world's population. Yet, it has 30 percent of the world's poverty. African countries spend $1.51 for every dollar they currently receive in aid. So they are really going out of the world backwards almost.
The West extracts 30 billion from Africa every year. United States subsidies depress the world's commodity prices, and cost African countries $250 million a year in lost export earnings.
What the United States provides in subsidies to the cotton sector alone is twice what it gives in foreign assistance to Subsaharan Africa. So we have to take a look at our policies here, because we are really devastating the world, and until we step up to the plate and look at our agricultural policies—and not only the United States, but western Europe also—then we are going to continue to see these problems of food and security.
Three hundred million Africans do not have access to safe water. Yet in the United States, water for poor initiatives, a wonderful program, with a wonderful title, and with tremendous goals, an $800 million program, only 6.5 percent of the money that we give toward clean portable water around the world goes to Africa, where there is the greatest need.
And 93.5 percent of the United States water for the poor initiative go to Afghanistan, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan. And I believe that those areas need money, but if we have got a program that is supposed to take the poorest countries in the world where the water is the worst, that get very little other assistance, the countries that are mentioned here get hundreds of millions of dollars in other aid.
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And that money from those programs should be used to try to have portable clean water, but don't take money from a program that is supposed to go to the neediest in the world, and have it go 95 or 94 percent to the countries where politically it is important that we see progress.
And I think that we need to see continued progress in Afghanistan, and in the West Bank, and in the Gaza Strip, and in Jordan. But we also need to see people in Subsaharan Africa who are getting very little assistance to have the program focused where it should be.
The moral arguments are compelling. But so too are the economic arguments. If the GDP of the African continent was to increase by just 1 percent, the resulting $70 billion in additional revenues could be used to foster sustainable self-development, and that is what we need to see more of.
Africa is a resource rich continent, with a young work force. There is no reason why it should not be a prosperous region that produces enough food to feed itself and the rest of the world for that matter.
If we are earnestly seeking a solution to cutting hunger in a major way, and such a solution needs to be a comprehensive and integrated approach. We need to increase food aid to address critical needs around the world, particularly in Africa, while also stepping up agricultural assistance significantly to allow for self-sustainability.
Nobody really wants to rely on food aid all their lives. It is a basic human right to have access to food and water, and we who have food, water, and more in abundance have a responsibility to our fellow global citizens to ensure these basic rights are upheld.
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So I thank the Chairman for having this very important hearing. I certainly look forward to hearing the witness' testimonies and their recommendations.
Mr. SMITH. Would any other Members of the Subcommittee like to be heard? If not, thank you, Mr. Payne. Let me now introduce for this part of the hearing, which is the briefing part, James T. Morris, who is the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, who became that at the beginning of April 2002.
In July 2002, Mr. Morris was appointed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for humanitarian needs in Southern Africa. In 2003, he successfully guided the World Food Program in the largest humanitarian operation in history, feeding some 26 million Iraqis.
He has a long and distinguished career, and is absolutely committed to alleviating the blight of hunger, and we are privileged to have you here at this briefing today. Mr. Morris, please proceed as you would like.
STATEMENT OF MR. JAMES T. MORRIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED NATIONS WORLD FOOD PROGRAM
Mr. MORRIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Payne, distinguished Members, ladies and gentlemen. First, may I say thank you for both of your extraordinary statements on the issue of world hunger.
This Committee has long been in a very strong and highly effective leadership role in helping to address the toughest humanitarian issues around the world, obviously with the special focus on Africa, and you will never know the number of lives that you have touched for the better.
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So little means so much, and what you care about, and what we try to do truly is not rocket science. We know how to do what needs to be done and you have given us the tools. But you have given us the tools with the right spirit and we appreciate that.
If I may also just pay tribute to your colleague, Tony Hall. Tony Hall was the United States Ambassador to the World Food Program for more than 3 years. He and his wife, Janet, were brilliant, and incredibly hard working, around the clock going anywhere and everywhere, to make things better for people so seriously at risk.
But you would have been proud of the remarkably wonderful face that he put on the United States of America as your representative. He was the face of America in hundreds of the toughest situations in the world, and I am grateful to him, and would that the world had a good many more like him. You really in many respects have put the issues in context. The World Food Program, the largest humanitarian agency in the world, the largest program of the United Nations, in 2004, we provided food for 113 million people in more than 80 countries, and last year, probably 94 million people.
Half of our work is in Africa, and half of our work deals with children, and half of our work interestingly enough is in countries that belong to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Our issues today in Africa are overwhelmingly. We will be a billion dollars short of what we need to do our job in Africa. Remarkable, truly remarkable, and almost incomprehensible challenges for people who live like most of us live, and incomprehensible to see how so many hundreds of millions of people suffer and are vulnerable every day.
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Congressman Payne referenced the report from the World Bank. This is a powerfully important document. It said that the number of natural disasters in the world increased four-fold in 1975 to 2005, and to a number of 400. The number of people affected in the decade precedent to 2005, 2.6 billion people, compared to 1.6 billion people in the preceding decade.
You put on top of this all of the sad, unnecessary, mean-spirited conflict and violence in the world that is overwhelming, and then you add to it the tough issues of health, especially HIV, and heaven forbid if the Avian Flu issue realized the worst situations.
And the tragedy of this is overwhelming, but like most tough problems in the world, they fall disproportionately on the backs of those least able, most vulnerable, usually women and children.
The burden on women in Africa is absolutely unacceptable. Women provide 80 percent of the agriculture, all of the home care, all of the food preparation, and now have a highly disproportionate percentage of the HIV infection.
At least 100 million kids in Africa are severely malnourished, not able to go to school, disproportionately affecting girls once again. My overwhelming thought—and let me just go back for a second.
The World Food Program is very focused on how we are prepared to respond to a huge number of natural disasters on any one day, but secondly, how do we go about advancing the Millennium Development goals of cutting hunger and poverty in half, infant mortality, maternal health, gender equity, universal primary education, HIV.
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And it is my strong view that we need a huge focus on eliminating child hunger in the world, and being sure that the mothers that nurse them and to which they are born are well nourished so that a healthy mother gives birth to a healthy child. And we know that the first 24 months of a child's life are critical in terms of making and developing that child's potential for a lifetime.
So I am very focused on how we as a world community, just like we have addressed issues on the environment or civil rights, how do we come to a world commitment that is engaging the private sector, the faith community, the civic community, youth groups, governments, and to say that it is no longer acceptable for 300 million children to be hungry, for 18,000 children to die every day, one every 5 seconds all day long.
If the headline in the Washington Post tomorrow morning said that 45 747s crashed today, and everybody on board was killed, and oh, by the way, all of them were children, and also by the way, that is going to happen every day for the foreseeable future, the world would be outraged.
And this is a solvable problem. And the economics are not overwhelming, and we can feed a child in Africa for $35 for a full school year, and a few pennies more to get rid of the worms.
You feed that little girl in Malawi and enable her to go to school for just a few years, everything about her life changes for the better. Fifty percent less likely to be HIV positive. Fifty percent less likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby.
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She will have children when she is 20 and not when she is 12. She will have 2 or 3, and not 8 or 10. And whole different aspirations for her life, her family's life, and her children's life.
And since so much of the burden of life in Africa is on the back of a woman, if she is fed and educated, her contribution will increase in a geometric way. So I would be happy over time to have extended discussions.
The McGovern-Dole program is overwhelmingly important, and it has inspired people all around the world to do more. But the fact of the matter is that we have to have a strategy that over the next 10 years doesn't find it acceptable to still have half the children who are hungry now still hungry. We have to solve this problem.
And the United States has provided extraordinary leadership. About 45 percent of what we receive today comes from the United States, and beyond that, the United States, through USAID, and USDA, and the State Department, truly works very hard and very thoughtful at trying to solve problems.
We have been through the most difficult situation that you can imagine in the Darfur region of the Sudan. The United States has provided overwhelming percentages of what we have to work with, but suddenly—and we had given people steady warnings.
But on the first of May, we had to make a decision to cut rations in half, to go from a daily calorie allocation of 2,100 calories to 1,050 calories. And in order to have food available for the next 5 months so that we didn't find ourselves in a predicament where there was no food available.
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But USAID, really in a very focused, and heart-felt way, found a way to provide an additional 47,000 tons of food. The Government of Sudan provided an additional 20,000 tons of food.
Additional help from Canada, Germany, and Denmark, and I am pleased to tell you now that by the first of June that we will have elevated that daily calorie allocation from 1,050 to 1,770. And then by the first of October, we will be back at a full allocation.
But the issues in Darfur you know well, and these are people living in camps under the worst possible conditions. Once again, always disproportionately falling on the backs of women and children.
The issues in Southern Africa, where I have been the Secretary-General's special envoy for 4 years, thank God there has been better weather this year, but we have been feeding more than 10 million people in that part of the world, and the convergence of the issues of food security, the HIV AIDS issue, and then tough issues of capacity and governance coming together with what we call a triple threat crisis.
And the impact overwhelming in places where life expectancy has gone from the high 60s to the low 30s. Life expectancy in the United States is 78, and we expect it to go up a few days every year. But life expectancy in this part of the world has been plummeting, the impact once again on children.
A country like Zimbabwe, 12 million population, and 1.3 million children are orphaned because mom and/or dad have died of HIV. You end up with 15 million kids in Southern Africa who are orphans. These kids have every need that the kids in New Jersey or Indianapolis have. You know, food, water, shelter, health, education, to say nothing of an adult to put their arm around them and say I love you and I care about you.
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The issues confronting children are overwhelming. The HIV AIDS crisis is so serious in parts of the world that there are a good many countries whose future is absolutely at risk. It overwhelms every facet of life in so many places.
The United States, through PEPFAR, has done an extraordinary piece of work in prevention, in treatment, in getting anti-retroviral treatment to a growing number of people, and it has been very thoughtful.
But the fact of the matter is that it is just like health care in the United States. Medicine administered on an empty stomach to a poorly nourished body has no chance to work. It often takes a very difficult toll on that body.
The relationship—if you would talk to Peter Piat, the head of U.N. AIDS, he would tell you that hunger and nutrition are the single biggest issues in the fight against HIV. And we have got to focus on how we address the nutritional issues, the hunger issues, of the 40 million people affected by HIV.
It is a factor in the prevention of mother to child transmission. It is a factor in the usefulness of the anti-retroviral treatment. It is the key factor in terms of how we educate children about HIV in school. They have to be fed to be successful in school.
So I would implore you to be seriously thoughtful about the connection between nutrition and the fight against HIV, and especially as the African Subcommittee, where half-a-dozen or more countries, truly their future is at risk because of the HIV crisis, places where more than 40 percent of the adult population are HIV positive, and the cost overwhelming.
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Consider the issues that the World Bank points out, the issues of ending child hunger, and the impact as it relates to HIV AIDS. And I agree with you, we are talking about real men, real women, real children.
The issues demand attention however you look at it, from a humanitarian, moral, spiritual perspective, an economic perspective, or a political security perspective. President Olusegun Obasajo of Nigeria says a hungry man is an angry man, and we know the ramifications of that.
I am profoundly grateful to the United States of America. When I came, you were providing 60 percent of our support. Five years later, you are providing 44 percent of our support, but you have continued in absolute numbers to increase, and we have gone from 56 to 81 donors, and we will have a hundred donors by the end of this year.
But my dream is that somehow the United States and its strong partners around the world as governments, but will partner with Rotary, and Kwanis, and the faith-based groups, the Boy Scouts, and the Future Farmers of America, to say that we are all—you know, I gave a commencement speech in Kentucky a few days ago, and little Georgetown College gave me money to feed 1,400 children in Guatemala.
Everybody needs to do a little bit more, and we can solve this problem, and for just so little, so powerfully change the lives of children. I don't know how you solve big problems other than one drop at a time. And you begin to change a child's life by feeding, and going to school. You change a family and you change your community.
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And President Eisenhower, when he set up the Food for Peace program, which is one of the United States' great foreign policy successes, said the world will be changed with wheat, not weapons.
And the United States has fed somewhere between 4 and 6 billion people the last 50 years in 135 countries, and many of those countries are now our best allies. So an investment in this issue of hunger and nutrition, with a special focus on women and children, looking at the tough issues that go along with it, the HIV AIDS issue, the natural disasters, and heaven forbid, so much conflict.
It is a winning formula, and as I say, my wife says that I give you the thesis sentence and that is enough and I always finish the volume. But I feel so passionately about this, and every day I go somewhere, anywhere in the world, I feel proud to be an American because of your generosity, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Morris follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MR. JAMES T. MORRIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED NATIONS WORLD FOOD PROGRAM
Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I was in Africa a few weeks ago together with Ann Veneman, the Executive Director of UNICEF and Antonio Guterres, the Executive Director of UNHCR. We visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Right after, I headed to Kenya, where prolonged drought is menacing the lives of the poor. It has already devastated farms and killed thousands of cattle. The question is: Will it claim the lives of children next?
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Few experiences have changed my life more than holding an acutely malnourished child in my arms, as I did in Kenya. To hold in my arms a one year old girl who weighs little more than an average newborn in the United States unleashes a tide of emotions. One can't help but feel grief for this child's pain; shame that this should be allowed to happen in the 21st century; anger that this child will not be the last to suffer this fate.
In fact, 18,000 children will not make it through today. Their tiny bodies will succumb to months and years of not getting the nutrition they needed to survive. Millions more will have their growth stunted forever, their minds dulled by malnutrition and their futures limited to a life of poverty and ignorance.
When we talk of deaths from hunger, scenes from drought in East Africa and conflict in Darfur come quickly to mind.
In these places, we face decisions that would make even King Solomon pause. Two weeks ago, we simply did not enough food or money soon enough for Darfur. We were forced to make one of the hardest decisions ever: do we halve the number of people we help, or do we try to give all of the people half the food they need?
Thankfully, the US has come to our rescue. In addition to announcing the emergency dispatch of five vessels and expediting procurement of 40,000 MT sorghum for Darfur, President Bush has asked Congress for $225m in emergency supplemental funding for Sudan. This assistance would be very welcome and would help us start increasing rations again next month for millions of people in Darfur. However, it takes on average 4–6 months for a confirmed donor pledge to arrive and be distributed in Darfur, so we really hope that funds will be approved quickly, before it is too late for the smallest and weakest people in Darfur.
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Other donors, including the European Commission, Canada and the Sudanese Government have also pledged to help. Next week I will be in Sudan to discuss with all of the players how to fund the huge needs there.
WFP—and the people caught in these terrible crises—have much to thank the United States for. In Darfur and East Africa, food aid worth US$552 million from the United States is keeping 12 million people alive. Truly, your support is miraculous.
The OECD reckons that international aid was higher in 2005 than in any year in history. Industrialized countries gave US $107 billion in foreign aid.
Last year, WFP provided food assistance to 97 million people in 83 countries. The United States was yet again our biggest supporter. All told, we raised US$2.8 billion—and more than US $1.2 billion of that came from the US—from our friends at USAID, at USDA and State Department. It's a record amount. And we really appreciate it. Almost one in every two people that WFP helps is fed thanks to the United States. At the same time as the US gave us more money than any other year in our history, it was the smallest share of our income from the US in 5 years—44 percent. Other countries are picking up more of the burden. And the number of countries donating to our work has grown from 56 in 2001 to 80 last year.
But the need for food aid still outstrips the resources available and donors have not given it the priority it deserves as they increase foreign aid. We need a ''food first'' policy. What is the point of investing in long-term economic aid when people are starving?
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Last year we hit another record—but this time a record low. Just 57 percent of our needs for emergency operations—like Darfur and East Africa—were funded. And as we saw in those places, a lack of funds leads to ration cuts.
We started the 2006–2007 biennium with a program of work valued at US$6.4 billion—this is how much we needed to raise to meet the assessed needs of the beneficiaries of the programs and operations approved by our Executive Board. In just the first 3 months of this year, that amount had increased by more than $320 million, mainly because of the drought crisis in the Horn of Africa.
Last year we reached 41 million people in Africa, including 19 million young people—and this year our target already exceeds 50 million. If I count just our most urgent needs on the continent—those where rations have been or are about to be cut—we are looking at a shortfall of more than $1.4 billion. Tens of millions of very poor, very hungry people are counting on us to find that money before it is too late.
With generosity at historically high levels, it is hard to understand why 15 million children who need WFP's help to survive, to grow, to go to school are going to be left wanting this year. Roughly one in four children under the age of five in Africa is undernourished—but currently WFP is reaching just one in 20.
Worldwide, there are roughly 100 million hungry children who get next to no assistance at all from anyone. To give them and their mothers a very basic package of food, nutrition and basic health care, we've calculated would cost something in the vicinity of US $5 billion a year. That's almost the same amount as Congress has appropriated to assist 7 million American women and infants through the WIC program in FY 2005. WIC is one of the most effective programs in history and has the strongest bipartisan support. If that investment in America's poor mothers and children was worth making, why not reach out to all who need our help?
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I have to believe it comes down to a question of priorities. Who should we put first when deciding the aid budget? From all that I have seen and learned, it simply must be mothers and children—and their most urgent need for food, water, education and health care must come before anything else. Priority has to go to the hungriest people in the poorest places before they become the victims of emergencies. As grateful as we are for the US coming to our rescue with supplemental bills, it would be much more effective if we were managing risks better and developing more flexible tools to respond—just as you already do at home.
The vast majority of the children who will die today from hunger and related causes won't perish in a high-profile emergency. They'll pass, unnoticed by anyone other than their families and neighbors, in squalid slums or in remote dusty villages.
If they do survive, their lives will have changed forever. Take the story of four year old Marie Carmel, from Haiti, as an example. Her black curly hair is tinged with red, a tell-tale sign of malnutrition. Her eyes are empty—four months ago a chronic lack of vitamin A left her completely blind. Two of her siblings died and two were given away, simply because her mother could not feed them. Marie Carmel and her mother now survive on the monthly rations of rice, beans, oil and iodized salt, handed out at a health centre north of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Did little Marie really need to go blind from malnutrition in 2006?
Increasingly, many of the world's 300 million hungry children have been touched in some way by HIV. Perhaps they're trying to care for sick parents. Perhaps their parents have died from AIDS, leaving them in the care of poor grandparents or abandoned to their own devices on the streets. Perhaps they themselves are HIV positive. One thing is almost certain—if they had trouble getting enough to eat before HIV devastated their lives, they're going to find it much, much harder once AIDS grips their existence. Without a healthy diet, their fight to survive this plague is being fought with one hand tied behind their backs.
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I have seen this more times than I care to remember in southern Africa, where average life expectancy has plunged to less than 35 years of age in some of the worst-hit countries. Children as young as 12 are caring for sick parents and their siblings. They're doing their best to grow food and earn a living, but sometimes that means they take risks that threaten their own health and safety.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has done so much to bring care and treatment to the 40 million people worldwide who live with HIV. It has reached out to more than a million orphans and vulnerable children. We must consider ways to ensure that the nutritional needs of people affected by HIV are taken into consideration: so that they're well-nourished enough to benefit from antiretroviral treatment; so that their children can still go to school, instead of working to put food on the table; so that HIV-positive mothers can give birth to healthy babies.
No American doctor in his right mind would provide antiretroviral treatment to someone without ensuring that they were sufficiently well nourished to withstand the side effects and absorb the medication. Not a single baby was born with HIV in the United States last year. Not one. Yet elsewhere in the world, close to 1,800 babies inherit HIV from their mothers every single day. Less than 10 percent of the world's HIV-positive mothers have access to programs that prevent them from transmitting the virus to their children.
Just as HIV and AIDS impact on numerous aspects of peoples' lives—on their food security, on their incomes, on social services, health and education—our response must be equally dynamic. A comprehensive and sound medical approach, that encompasses the food and nutrition needs of people affected by HIV, is needed. I urge Congress to support it.
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What I'm asking is that we apply the same standards of care for all of the world's children, as you would to your own. We don't stand by and allow children to die from hunger in the United States. We don't try to give antiretroviral treatment to malnourished patients without meeting their nutritional needs. We don't allow mothers to pass HIV to their babies. We don't allow hunger and poverty to keep children out of school. We don't cut food rations for the victims of emergencies.
There is another emotion which overcomes me when I hold malnourished children who receive WFP's help—your help. That emotion is hope. Hope that one day soon we will care for these children as if they were our own. That they would have enough to eat and an opportunity to go to school—just like my own children and grandchildren did.
When that happens, surely child hunger will be a phenomenon to be studied in history class, not a matter for the nightly news.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. Morris, thank you so much for your eloquent testimony, but more importantly, for your passion on behalf of those who are suffering from hunger and malnourishment.
In your written testimony, you mentioned that 100 million hungry children will get no assistance whatsoever from anyone. You said earlier, and you repeated it in your oral comments, about how 18,000 children will not make it through today, and I do hope that our colleagues understand that.
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In a time when people are holding down budgets, every dollar that goes to someone who is not getting food is a matter of life or death, and you have made that case very eloquently. You point out that it would take about $5 billion to feed those 100 million people.
You pointed out in your testimony that we are a billion short in Africa. I wonder if you could just tell us—you know, one of the things that I have argued about with UNHCR and other agencies that very often the appeals are based on what you hope to get, as opposed to what the raw need is.
If we were to really initiate an all-out effort to say hunger is first, ''put hunger first'' as you put it, what would it take? Is the $5 billion addition, is that the ballpark number? If you could just give us those kinds of numbers.
And if you could lay out for the Committee perhaps in followup exactly how you got those numbers so that we can make the case as empirically as possible that this is what we buy when taxpayer funding is expended in such a humanitarian way. We save lives.
But the more detail that we have, I think the better in making our case when people may not spend the kind of time that they should or could on this issue. Secondly, you mentioned in your testimony that the European Commission, Canada, and the Sudanese Governments have pledged to help, and you anticipate discussions, I believe, next week.
If you can shed any light on what the expectation is on how much you are hoping to glean from them during those discussions. And in your testimony, you also referred to the need to be better able to manage risks, and to develop more flexible tools to respond to emergencies.
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If you might touch on some of those tools that you think are needed. And again your testimony is extraordinary, and I appreciate it.
Mr. MORRIS. Thank you. We are working very hard trying to have as much accuracy and precision in the numbers as possible. Most of the places we work don't have a census like we would in the United States, and the numbers are tough.
We work in partnership with FAO, with UNICEF, with the World Bank, with national governments, to develop the numbers. We have had a special relationship with this extraordinary consulting firm, the Boston consulting firm, BCG.
They give us about $6 million of pro bono services every year, and they have been specifically helpful in working through the $5 billion number. Essentially, it is our belief that there are probably 20 million women in Africa, mothers or pregnant, plus 100 million children who have virtually no help.
If we go back to the larger number of 300 million hungry children in the world, we would assume that 80 million of them are in India. Forty million of them are in China. A few million more in Brazil. And those are all places now that have the wherewithal, food surpluses, and I think political will, to really focus efforts on the issue.
We closed our program in China in December. We had been there 40 years. We continue to have a modest program in India, largely paid for by the Indian Government. But if you take, let us say, that 125 from the 300 million figure, you have a figure of 175 million.
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And it would be our belief that probably 75 million of the kids have some help, some support, from our programs, from extraordinary support from NGOs, some bilateral help. But we would say that setting aside the China and India numbers, 100 million kids hungry in Africa, 15 million, or maybe 20 million in Latin America, 10 to 15 million in the Middle East, and the former Soviet Republics; and another 50 or 60 million in Asia—Pakistan, Bangladesh, North Korea.
The $5 billion figure is what we think we could provide help for the 20 million mothers, and the 100 million children. We can feed a child for a full school year for $35 in Africa. The numbers are a little less in Bangladesh, a little less in North Korea.
And you throw a few pennies in for other things, the worm treatment, et cetera. And it has been my thought that over a period of 10 years, let us say that you would start with a new availability of $3 billion in Africa, and that probably the Africans could leverage another $2 billion on their own as a way of funding the $5 billion.
And that over a 10-year period the African countries would underwrite a much larger percentage and the external support would decline. There are 700,000 or 800,000 children in Botswana. Today, the government completely funds the school feeding program in Botswana, and does not need us.
But there are several issues here. One is the capacity building of governments to address the issue. The second issue is the local production of food, and the important role of family gardens and school gardens, and then the issue of external help.
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In Northeast Kenya right now, with this incredible drought in The Horn, there is no capacity for agricultural production in Northeast Kenya whatsoever. It depends on external help.
The Government of Kenya has given us 60,000 tons of food this year for the northeast region, and we have been depending on the rest of the world probably for another 275,000 tons of food for that part of the world.
So at least that has been the way that we have pulled these numbers together. We have a strong, strong partnership with the World Bank, and with UNICEF. The World Bank, in terms of metrics, is outstanding in their analysis.
The World Bank is more focused on children from zero to two. The World Bank would tell you that an investment in feeding children zero to two is the single most powerful economic investment that a country can make in its future, be it the United States, or be it Rwanda.
So that is where we look for the numbers, and once again, our global commitment to the Millennium Development goals, if we are going to cut hunger and poverty in half, the most powerful highly leveraged investment is focusing on children, because they have a lifetime for our investment to pay off.
And these kids are born into circumstances completely beyond their control, and that is when the rest of the world has to step in. Your question about—we know that when we have resources available on day one of a crisis, that same amount of value can feed 20 to 30 percent more people, compared to that same amount of money coming in the middle of a crisis.
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When coping mechanisms haven't been exhausted, and when people are not in extreme condition, when food supply prices, supply and demand works, and prices are lower at the beginning, and they get higher later on.
And we know that same amount of money just goes so much further, and we are a big advocate for unrestricted multilateral, untied, undirected cash. And we are very grateful for all that anyone does for us. We could not exist without the United States commitment of food commodities.
Cash is a very precious asset for us. Cash allows us to buy locally. The cultural issues, the storage issues, the transport issues, are much simpler. We work very hard not to distort markets. The people we feed have nothing.
We don't fee people who have much cash in their pocket. Now on occasion, we might provide food for someone who has a little cash in their pocket, and thank goodness then that they are able to use that for other basic essentials that their family needs.
But we have been working hard on an insurance scheme. Richard Wilcox, a wonderful American colleague, has been the leader of this effort. We are experimenting in Ethiopia. Can we transfer the risk from the small vulnerable farmer to the financial markets.
We have crop insurance all across the United States. Is there a way for the international community to provide the premium to buy an insurance policy that will protect the vulnerable farmer in Ethiopia.
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And it is an experiment that we have underway. We had five big international insurance companies who wanted to underwrite it, and so we are in the middle of that experiment. The French have exhibited some interest in trying that same experiment in Mali.
We have tried to bring best business practices to the World Food Program. We have a strong balance sheet, and a business knows how to use its balance sheet, its working capital, its assets, to do all sorts of other things before cash for the next project is in the bank.
And like insurance people, we actuarially analyze the likelihood of a national commitment actually being realized, and then we are willing to go ahead and advance the capital to make the purchase on day one when it will go so much further. So at least those are—I could talk forever on this subject, but maybe that is useful.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you. We plan on crafting a bill that intelligently, as well as with enough resources, will seek to increase our commitment to putting food first. We would welcome every thought and idea that you have, as well as Members of the Subcommittee, and all of the NGOs who will be testifying, because we want to work on this, and try to get it introduced shortly. But feel free to give us all of your good ideas.
Mr. MORRIS. Thank you. We were about a billion dollars short last year in what we needed to do our work in Africa, and we probably were funded at about 60 percent of what our emergency requirements needed.
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Hopefully the Southern Africa thing won't be so serious food wise going forward, but the tough issues remain in Liberia and the Ivory Coast, and West Coastal Africa, the tough issues in Uganda.
You know, my comment always is so little goes so far, and the desperate conditions of people who have nothing, and living in harsh weather conditions in this tough HIV environment, and in this violence environment, we can't conceive of what their lives are like. But I know that you travel, and I know that you see it, and I am grateful for that.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you. And I think your point about the enhanced value of early money, as compared to later on—obviously it is welcomed later on, but I think it is a very, very important point. Very well taken.
Mr. MORRIS. We have an immediate response account that we revolve in, and last year, let us say that we had $35 million in the base account, and we were able to use more than $100 million to advance or to send people, or to send helicopters or whatever was needed on day one.
Mr. SMITH. That is great. Mr. Payne.
Mr. PAYNE. I would also like to express my appreciation for your testimony and the passion. You certainly take your job very, very seriously, as it is a serious job, but you certainly are a great Ambassador for what needs to be done.
There is no question about early intervention, and even in education we find that a thousand dollars put into education for even prenatal care, and pre-K education, and all, it goes six or seven times, 10 times further than if you took a thousand dollars and tried to, say, put it into a Job Corps program to get someone to get a GED.
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I mean, it wouldn't even start to scratch the surface, and so it is so clear that early intervention is such a—you know, a stitch in time saves nine kind of concept that old folks used to say. But it is difficult to get that concept through sometimes that we could do so much on the early side.
Let me just ask this question. As you have indicated, the United States has continued to increase its amount. However, overall, there has been a decrease from 66 percent to 44 percent of the world budget.
We see that in a number of our international organizations. The United Nations, in general, was about 50 percent, and it went down to 33, and we are down to 21, and we may be below 20 if the new formula goes in.
Let me ask you. Where did the shift come from? You did mention some countries doing more, but I would be interested to know who is starting to pick up the slack that didn't do it before.
Also, I have a curiosity about the very difficult places to get to. I mean, you have painted a very bleak picture, but how about areas where new Sudanese refugees are, and there are about 200 million new ones it is estimated since January to today that are in places that they haven't even been before.
In Somalia, where we have virtually no diplomatic relations with, how bad is it in some of those places where we have no way of knowing formally what is going on? As you mentioned, in Northern Uganda, where the Lord's Resistance Movement is, and in Eritrea and Ethiopia, Ethiopia being such a large country, with 60 million people, but so many rural parts, and one of the poorest countries in the world.
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And what is your prognostication for what is happening up there, or do we have any way of knowing is there any place that is really untouched by world organizations?
Mr. MORRIS. Let me respond to at least three points. Your first reference to a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars will feed 35 children for a full year. Their lives will never be the same, all for the better.
Your notion of prevention. Because of the change in the world with more natural disasters, more conflict, the world has been much more preoccupied with saving lives, protecting livelihoods, than making investments, and moderating and mediating, and preventing problems.
The United States WIC program is—I don't know what, but maybe $7 billion a year; women, infants, and children. The impact of WIC in this country is overwhelming. I mean, it is a powerful investment in women, infants, and children, and gives them the base to give life to a healthy child, or a base for a good life.
That same investment would eliminate hunger in Africa. Now I know that it is apples and oranges, but the children in Africa have the same potential as the children anywhere in the world if given the opportunity if they are nourished and have a chance to go to school.
And I want to tell you this quick story. Paul Tergat, he called me a few days ago, or a few weeks ago, and said, Jim, I want to come see you. Paul Tergat, from Kenya, one of 17 children, had just set the world record in the Berlin Marathon, just won the New York Marathon this year, and he said I want to tell you my story.
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Twenty-seven years ago, the World Food Program came to my village in Kenya, and through a school feeding program fed me, and changed the life of my village, and all of my friends, and all of my classmates.
And he said, oh, by the way, that food was provided to the World Food Program by the United States of America Food for Peace. Now, not every child is going to be a champion long distance runner, but every child has great horizons and great opportunities, and deserves the chance.
Your issue about how tough it is to get places. We had four truck drivers killed in the last quarter of last year in the Sudan. In Darfor, we probably fed 2.8 million people in March in the Sudan and Darfor, and another 400,000 that we couldn't get to because of the violence.
There would be 230,000 Sudanese refugees across the border in Chad, and living in 15 camps. Interestingly enough, their nutritional status improved substantially to a point where it was substantially better than the Chadian population around the camp.
And so that leads to difficulty, and we have now been pretty aggressive to provide help for the Chadian population, who by the way has been very welcoming to the Sudanese refugees. But the issue of violence. More people have lost their lives doing humanitarian work for the United Nations than in doing peacekeeping work.
And we have 135 duty stations around the world that are phase three or higher by United Nation's security standards. So you have got thousands of people at risk every single day.
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The weather conditions in Pakistan, and the weather conditions as we head into the tough time in Afghanistan. Thank goodness we had great support from the Canadian Avalanche Team that came into Afghanistan and helped us clear the passes of snow so we could get food and preposition for people who would need it in the winter time.
But we will feed between 2 and 3 million refugees this year; twice to two-and-a-half times that many internally displaced people. In Uganda, we would be feeding a million-and-a-half internally displaced people, and about that many in Colombia for that matter.
And people—and it is another category, but people who are chased from their homes, and who have nothing to fall back on, are living in some of the worst human conditions imaginable.
Mr. PAYNE. We certainly thank you, and I think that the points that you bring out about—you know, many of my colleagues from time to time have a field day criticizing the United Nations, and how bad it is, and how ineffective it is.
Oil-for-Food probably had more time spent on the United Nations than any program in the history of the United Nations. However, to hear you talk about those humanitarian people who lose their lives, and those folks who are unsung heroes. This world would be a disaster if it wasn't for the United Nations. I mean, it is bad enough as it is. Thank you.
Mr. MORRIS. If I might just quickly respond to your reference to Oil-for-Food. I wish to God it would have been called Oil for Wagons, or something, but we are the World Food Program of the United Nations, and we had nothing whatsoever to do with the Oil-for-Food Program.
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Mr. Volker, in his report, commended the World Food Program, and we have been embarrassed by the use of the word food in both our names. To our credit, after the first phase of the Iraqi situation, there were a huge number of contracts that the Saddam Hussein government had put in place with food companies around the world.
And the Security Council asked the World Food Program to come in and renegotiate those contracts, and to take out the kickbacks, and to see what reliability the transport situation might represent.
And we had 30 of our very bright young colleagues go off to an office and renegotiate a $1.4 billion worth of Oil-for-Food contracts so that the food could be delivered to the people of Sudan. It is an extraordinary story of what some very bright young people from all over the world did.
Mr. PAYNE. Thank you.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Ms. Lee.
Ms. LEE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask that my full opening statement be put into the record, and I will try to be very brief.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Lee follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE BARBARA LEE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
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Thank you Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Payne for convening this important hearing on food aid and hunger throughout the world.
Across the developing world as a whole, an estimated 850 million people go to bed hungry and undernourished every night.
And every day 24,000 people die of hunger.
Mr. Chairman, as we all know, food production in Africa has fallen behind population growth over the past 30 years. Ironically this has left Africa, an agriculturally rich continent, as a net importer of food.
Many Americans are interested in providing the necessary tools for Africans to be food-secure but ignore the fact that developing Africa's agricultural sector is the key to eradicating Africa's current famine crisis and stabilizing the social sectors that have crumbled.
The bottom line Mr. Chairman, is that food security will help create political, social, and economic security.
In August of 2003, I led a Congressional Delegation to Zambia and Ethiopia. The goal of the delegation was to better understand the connection between food security, access to clean water and HIV/AIDS.
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Mr. Chairman, what we found was the undeniable link between food and the global fight against HIV and AIDS.
An estimated 95 percent of the 40 million people infected with HIV and AIDS globally live in developing countries. And 70 percent of those are in sub-Saharan Africa.
In these places, hunger and HIV/AIDS are two sides of the same deadly sword.
Without adequate nutrition and vitamins, the infected are robbed of one of the main defenses against early death. People with HIV become increasingly weak and fatigued; they do not respond to drug treatment and are prone to other illnesses such as malnutrition and tuberculosis.
Mr. Chairman, that is why I am exploring legislation that could potentially provide relief to millions suffering from food insecurity and hunger-related conditions by investing in agriculture and African farmers, providing resources to detect famine early, and moving food quickly into famine-impacted areas.
My legislation currently addresses three critical things.
First it would authorize and invest appropriate funds to the World Food Programs' weather derivatives initiative.
Secondly, it would increase the resources of the Famine Early Warning System program in order for them to do more work throughout Africa.
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And finally, the most controversial provision—authorizing the use of local and regional purchase of emergency food aid.
Combined, all of these provisions would create a comprehensive approach to ending hunger, investing in farmers and agriculture and warding off famine.
Thank you Mr. Chairman, I look forward to our hearing.
Ms. LEE. But thank you very much, Mr. Morris, for your powerful testimony, and your powerful work. Certainly you, more than most, know what is going on there on the continent, and understand what needs to be done. We all recognize that—and many Americans are interested in providing the necessary tools for Africans to be food secure, but ignore the fact that developing Africa's ag sector is really key to eradicating African's current famine crisis, and stabilizing the social sectors that have crumbled.
So I am exploring legislation, and Mr. Chairman, I would like to work with you and our Ranking Member on this, and that would really invest appropriate funds to the World Food Program's weather derivatives initiative. It would increase the resources of the Famine Early Warning System Program.
And also, which is very controversial, it would authorize the use of local and regional purchase of emergency food aid. And so as you think about this further, and what an appropriate United States response could or should be that would end hunger, and invest in farmers and agriculture, in an effort to ward off famines, I would like to get your feedback on those specific provisions.
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Secondly, I am very pleased to hear you talk about the nexus between food insecurity and HIV and AIDS. When we worked on the PEPFAR initiative, the global AIDS initiative, we actually under the leadership of our greater Ambassador, Tony Hall, former Ambassador, and Eva Clayton—and I want to thank you very much for helping us with this.
We included a provision in that legislation that would integrate nutrition programs with HIV and AIDS initiatives. It would provide as a component anti-retroviral therapy, and program support for food and nutrition to individuals infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
And we would provide food and support, and nutrition for children affected by HIV and AIDS to communities. In your work have you seen this integration of these efforts? We wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in April to ask about this, and I still have not received a response.
And I will ask the USAID officials later on that, but have you seen a robust type of integration of these strategies as you look at efforts as it relates to the delivery of food throughout Africa?
Mr. MORRIS. We certainly will be eager to be helpful to you as you think about legislation that speaks to prevention and the early capacity to address tough humanitarian issues. Early warning systems, the Fusenet system, which the United States has led and putting in place in Africa.
But equally important developing capacities with governments. I am more and more of the opinion that FAO and the World Food Program, and IFAD, the Agricultural Development Bank, we need to model ourselves in terms of our development assistance after the U.N. AIDS concept, where we have a country theme group working with governments, where they have the ownership.
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But to help them develop the capacity to pursue their own strategy of food security, and Food for Work is really an important part of that. Our Food for Work programs help put in place simple irrigation systems, rebuild roads, all sorts of things helping families get on their feet.
Eva Clayton was terrific. She was in Rome for 3 years, and her advocacy on behalf of hunger around the world. We miss her. She couldn't wait to get back to North Carolina, I think, but she was a special spirit in every way.
We have reorganized our program in 51 countries to respond to the HIV AIDS issue. We know that we can provide food for about 66 cents a day for a family affected by HIV. I talked about mother to child transmission, and I talked about school feeding, where children are educated.
I talked about the fact that a doctor would never prescribe a pharmaceutical product to someone that was poorly nourished and hungry. They go hand-in-glove. ARV doesn't work without good nutrition, and I am optimistic now that Ambassador Tobias is leading both the Agency for International Development and his global AIDS coordinator experience, that he will find a way to pull together the need for nutritional support.
He understands this issue. I had long talks with him, and had an extraordinary meeting this week with Dr. Farmer, from Harvard, who is working in Haiti, and who would tell you that absolutely that anti-retroviral treatment only works if nutrition and food is available.
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And you end up with people not taking the anti-retroviral drugs because of the harshness that it imposes on their bodies if there is no food there to balance it. And my medical vocabulary may not be correct, but you get a sense that this is really important.
We have been working and trying to get the Global Fund to understand this issue. It is an issue that everybody acknowledges, but they expect someone else to do it.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Morris, let me just interrupt you by saying that I hope, and I am pleased to hear your response, but I hope that this Committee—Mr. Chairman may at some point look at some oversight on this one specific issue based on the legislation that we authorized.
Mr. MORRIS. Thank you.
Mr. BOOZMAN [presiding]. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate your testimony, and appreciate you shedding light on what is going on. Thank you.
Our next witness is Mr. Hess. At this point, we will go ahead and convene the hearing. Again, we appreciate the briefing. So the meeting is convened. Our first panel is the Honorable Michael E. Hess, USAID. Colonel Michael Hess is the Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, USAID.
Colonel Hess has more than 30 years of service in the U.S. military. In April 2003, Colonel Hess was recalled to active duty to serve as the Humanitarian Coordinator in the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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He later served as the deputy chief of staff for the coalition provisional authority. Thank you very much for coming in, Colonel Hess.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MICHAEL E. HESS, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr. HESS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is an honor to be here today, especially with my colleague and teammate, Jim Morris. We have worked very closely together. It is a good teamwork effort between USAID and World Food Programme, and it is also great to be here with our other colleagues in the NGO community, and with Ambassador Hall, with whom we have worked very closely providing food aid around the world.
I am going to make a presentation here, focusing mainly on my recent trip to the Horn of Africa, where we were looking at the needs in the pastoralist crisis. You can see the shot there on the screen from El Wak, and it is up in northeast Kenya that Jim Morris referred to earlier.
It is one of the hardest hit areas in the Horn of Africa. We call this a pastoralist crisis, because as Fred Coney taught us a long time ago, drought does not cause famine. Famine is caused by a lack of governance. And certainly the issues in this region, and affecting the pastoralists in particular, are an example of a lack of governance.
And certainly in the Somalia region—we couldn't go into Somalia obviously, but we talked very closely with our partners who worked in Somalia about the conditions there, where we have a global acute malnutrition rate in the Gata region of over 23.7 percent, where 15 percent is considered an emergency situation.
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And you couple that with the outbreak of polio and measles in that same region, then you have got the makings of a good disaster. So when you see these issues of governance, we look at the solution to it. We do provide food aid immediately, and we have to stop the dying and alleviate the suffering.
We also participate in malnutrition programs, trying to alleviate malnutrition at the same time through community based therapeutical feeding programs, and in some cases supplemental feeding centers and therapeutic feeding centers, where the concept of community feeding centers haven't taken over.
We also look at the governance issues, and we have to. We have to look at representation for the pastoralists. In Kenya, they represent less than 3 percent of the society. So how do those people get represented so that their needs can be met, and so that we can talk about funds transferred to that part of society.
In the Somali region of Ethiopia, there are 4 million people who live there out of 77 million people in Ethiopia. Again, there is an imbalance between the representation and how those people get their needs met.
So while we are looking at the immediate concern as Jim says, we provide a large proportion of the food that goes into the Horn of Africa. We also have to look at these long term issues, and we have devoted a lot of money into water sanitation, nutrition programs, but also livelihood programs, where we want to try to affect the livelihoods of these people who live in these regions, and suffer the worst consequences of the drought.
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And what I mean by the livelihoods programs, is that we have looked at alternative crops. Why don't we go on to the next slide. For those of you who have not seen a supplemental feeding program, these are never fun to see. This is a supplemental feeding program in Ethiopia.
It is actually in one of the better regions of Ethiopia. This is in the Southern Nations region, and near Bandera, just south of Addis Abbaba, and if you look at the children there, they are certainly suffering. And we didn't expect to see that in this region, because they had a good harvest last year. They had good rains this year.
They are part of the productive safety net program, and so all of the conditions are ripe there that they should be doing well, but if you look at those children in those pictures, there were 120 children waiting to be screened there in this center.
They had 38 children already in the supplemental feeding program. They were going to admit another 55 that day, and there were 120 waiting to be screened. This is all part of a community-based feeding program that we had established and funded with our NGO partners there.
But as you can see, even in a good region, there are problems, and we have to make sure that we cover those areas, even though we think they are well covered, to make sure that we can reach those children as well.
And on the next slide, you will see a food distribution center in Djibouti. This is north of the Gulf. Those are WFP bags. You can't see too well there. The markings of our USAID—well, here, let me show you what one looks like.
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You have probably seen these bags when you go out to the field. It is a good testimony to the generosity of the American people. But that is a WFP site with some of our food that is being distributed there in Djibouti, but when we are talking about the distribution, we have got to make sure that it gets to the right people.
And we do that through our good monitoring systems with our partners, the NGOs who are also in the area, to make sure that we get the food to the right people. On the governance side at the same time, we meet with the governments and the ministries to make sure that they are looking at these livelihood issues.
And when we talk about livelihoods for pastoralists, and that is what we are talking about being affected here, is primarily pastoralists, 6.5 million of them. And we are looking at programs in Ethiopia and alternative livelihoods, where we could do gardening so that they can raise vegetables through drip irrigation systems so that they can have alternative sources of income.
We also support savings programs. We were also looking at silk worm production, to give them another alternative income so that when the crisis hits, they will have some assets that they don't have to sell off everything and become destitute, and fall into the productive safety net program.
So the livelihoods program is a very important one. We were also able to destock and vaccinate over a million livestock this year because of these livelihoods initiatives, and hopefully head off and give these people some resources to get through the crisis.
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The next one that I would like to talk about a little bit on the next slide is the Sahel. If you all remember last late July and August, there was a huge human cry in the press about the famine in the Sahel. We don't like to use the word famine lightly, because it has very severe connotations.
And we were looking at the crisis, and you certainly saw pictures of starving children in Niger in particular, and we said, well, what is causing this. You look at the pure numbers. In Niger, there was a lot of talk about locusts, and drought, and things like that, and how it was affecting the people, and they were starving.
Niger in that year, even with the locusts and the drought, produced 2.32 kilograms per person, and they need 1.83 kilograms per person. So if you do the math, you think, well, what is going on here. And the most severe cases of malnutrition were in the bread basket of Niger.
So things aren't really tabulating very well and are not calculating, and so I went there with a team. We sent DART teams to Niger, to Mali, to Burkina Faso, and to Mauritania, to try and alleviate some of the suffering and stop the dying.
But what we found was fascinating. How can you produce this much food, but the people don't have any food. Well, food production doesn't necessarily lead to food security as you know. What we found was that a lot of the food was being bought by Nigerian traders, and shipped off to Nigeria.
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There were extraordinary debt levels among the farmers. This last year, right after we were there, they had very good rains. They had a record harvest, but in some cases, half- to three-quarters of the food that these farmers produced would go to pay off debts.
Why do they have these debts? Well, what you recognize is that a lot of these farmers in the off-season used to go to work in the coca fields. They couldn't do that anymore. So they didn't have alternative sources of income.
We also found some interesting things, statistics, when Jim talks about the most severely affected children are zero to two. This was certainly the case when you go to the therapeutic feeding centers in Niger during the crisis.
You will notice some very odd. I mean, you go to other places in the world—if you looked at those women in Ethiopia, they weren't doing very well, nor were the rest of the children.
But in here, in Niger, what we noticed was that the affected population was between 10 months, 9 or 10 months, and 24 months. The other children were doing fine. The adults were doing fine. This does not compute in a normal situation. So we started to inquire into that, and part of the problem is early weaning programs.
Women will wean their children in Niger at 8 or 9 months, and they put them straight on to millet. Millet is a carbohydrate. If you put a child at that age on a carbohydrate, they are not going to do very well.
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So you take these factors. We also noticed when we were in the Sahel, and I will go to the next slide, that every village that we went to, we asked them what their number one need was. This was during a supposed famine.
The number one need in every village was clean water. Clean water. Fred also taught us, Fred Coney, taught us that water kills. This is a water well. Fifty-three percent of the villages in Niger have water wells, but look at that water well.
Animals tromping around it, and I will show you a picture in the next slide. This is a slide that shows the water quality coming out of that well. What you can't see very clearly in this slide unfortunately, but where the arrows are pointing are fecal coral forms.
If you drink that water, you are going to die, but this is a water well where people and animals go to get their water supply. This is not a good situation. Just to give you an idea of what this should look like on the next slide, you will see the one on the left, which is from the well that I just showed you, the one in the middle shows another well where only humans were getting water, but you could still see not so good standards. And then you could see hotel tap water, which you can get out of Washington, DC.
But you could see the issue here. It is not just food. We have to look at the whole range of issues, and we have to be able to address that. And we look at a holistic program. So while we are providing food from Food for Peace, while we are providing nutritional programs to make sure that those children who are malnourished receive the proper care.
We also are looking at water sanitation issues to make sure that we can clean up this water and make sure that the people are getting clean healthy water at the same time. It is estimated that in 2004 that WHO estimated that 80 percent of the diseases in the world are caused by bad water.
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We have got to do a little bit more to make sure that we integrate this, and make sure that people get clean water. When we worked with the government in Kenya during the pastoralist crisis here, we emphasized this with them, and they are going to produce catchment programs in northeast Kenya that will capture 5 million cubic liters of water in this year.
So that when the rainy seasons come, and we will talk about the rainy seasons when I get to early warning, that they will be able to have something there when the droughts start to come. So we are working with the governments to look at these long term solutions.
We have to address the short term, and we have to address the emergency, but at the same time, we have to address these long term issues as well. So what are we doing in the agency to try to solve some of these problems? The next slide shows what Jim Morris was referring to, the famine early warning system.
This is important for us. It takes us about 4 or 5 months to load the ships with food here in the United States and get it around to Africa. In some cases, if you are talking about Darfur, it could be as many 6 months, and that means that we have to anticipate a lot earlier.
So the famine early warning system, we have worked very closely with, and we have been working on it for 52 years trying to get a better mechanism in place. And it is not just weather anymore. As I indicated earlier when we were talking about the Sahel, we have to look at different factors.
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We have to look at market disruptions. We have to look at sentinel sites to see where malnutrition rates are. We have to look at debt levels. We have to look at the whole—all of the factors that affect food and security, and not just food itself, or what market processes are, but everything across the board.
And FEWS is doing that, and we have expanded the FEWS program, and put more people on the ground, especially in Africa, to try to address those issues. The next slide shows you the drought sequence, and this is what happened in the Horn of Africa this year.
And the arrow in the middle there, the red spot there, shows you the long drought season that we anticipated starting in October, and we started Food for Peace. Jonathan Dworken and his team started to redeploy assets to make sure that we could have food available in the Horn of Africa early on to address the issues as they arose in the Horn.
This includes Somalia. There was a question earlier by Congresswoman Lee about how we address Somalia. Obviously, we can't put Americans on the ground there, but we work very closely with our partners in the NGO community. We get reporting from them. We work very closely with our partners in the U.N. system.
Not only WFP, but UNICEF, and U.N. OCHA, to make sure that we have good reporting out of Somalia. We know that they need 23,000 metric tons a month to go into Somalia, and we do that through WFP and through CARE.
So we are not ignoring Somalia, even though we have some issues there on the diplomatic side. We want to make sure that those people don't suffer as well. So we are able to anticipate this.
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We started diverting food in October, but there again that is a long process. But this shows you the results, the next slide does, of what happens when you don't have food, and when it doesn't get there on time, and this is an IDP camp in northeast Kenya where people were coming to try and get food and water, and it is not a pretty sight.
This is a map of the Sudan. I have talked about obviously the U.N. organizations, and WFP, whom we work very closely with, and I was heartened when I was in the Horn of Africa this year. While it is not good, it is never fun to go to a therapeutic feeding center, or to a supplemental feeding center, and to see those children who are suffering, because they do suffer the worst.
That is not good, and we don't like that, but our partners are there this year, and they are there early, and they are working very hard to try and alleviate these problems. We have not seen a rise in therapeutic feeding centers in the last 3 months. That is a good sign.
We have, however, seen a sharp increase in the numbers of children coming into supplemental feeding programs, and these partners work with us very closely to try and alleviate those. Some of the other things that we are looking at. The next slide is prepositioning.
This shows that if we need such a long lead time to try and address these issues, how can we try to shorten that lead time. Well, one of them is prepositioning. We have prepositioning sites in Dubai, and we also have them—this one happens to be in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where we can take commodities and get them ready to ship out as quickly as possible.
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We don't have to go through the call forward system, but we also are looking at, and we have just issued a request for proposals to establish another prepositioning site on or near the Continent of Africa. So again we can get more food closer to where we think the needs are going to be.
The next slide, there are some other options. As you know, for the crisis in Darfur, we have diverted five ships to make sure that some of those commodities get there. We also did a rapid purchase of 40,000 tons of sorghum. That is the 47,000 tons to which Jim referred are going to get there quickly.
There are prices to pay for that. As the next slide shows, this is disrupting some of our development programs because that is the food that goes into some of those development programs, but we have to make a choice between the emergency and people who are suffering, and our development issues.
So we are aware of that, and there are disruptions that are going to happen. The next slide we will talk about some other tools. We do need other tools. Jim referred to the insurance program. That premium was paid for by USAID. It is a $930,000 premium.
We gave a million dollars for that. We think it is an important tool to have in our kit as well, and we are anxious to see the results of that insurance program in Ethiopia. It is going very well right now. It is through the first 6 months, and we are excited to see that happen, and actually try to disintermediate some of our risks in other markets, and the capital markets is certainly one tool to look at.
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We also look at increasing our flexibility. As you know, the President in the 2007 budget requested the authority to get up to 25 percent of our funding in Title II in local purchase. And again as Jim pointed out, it is not that we don't believe in the food program. Obviously, we do.
But occasionally it is helpful if we can do local purchase and get the food there a little bit faster. For example, last year in Southern Africa, South Africa had 5 million tons surplus, and if we could have bought the food there, we could have gotten it a lot quicker to places like Zimbabwe and Malawi.
The next slide shows other partners. We work very closely with not only the NGOs and our international partners, but we also work with the military. We are working very closely with CJTF Horn of Africa, Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, to alleviate some of the crisis and the problems there. So we are looking for help all the way around.
And, of course, last but not least, is public diplomacy. When you talk about these food bags and these tins of oil with the United States flag on them, there are probably hundreds of thousands of these distributed around the world every year.
And that certainly talks to the testimony of the hard work and the generosity of the American people, and the hard work of the people in Food for Peace and our partners who are trying to solve the problems of hunger around the world. So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to be here today.
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[The prepared statement of Mr. Hess follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MICHAEL E. HESS, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee, it is an honor to appear before you today to participate in a discussion on food aid and its importance throughout the developing world. I appear as a witness along with respected colleagues and partners who have worked tirelessly to expand food aid programs in these critical times. In my testimony today, I will illustrate some important roles U.S. food aid plays saving lives, as well as reducing longer term food insecurity, and some of the challenges we are facing trying to reduce food insecurity. I will also cite examples of innovative programs that can build on food aid to address some of the chronic and long-term issues prevalent in countries that are food insecure.
As an Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, I oversee the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, DCHA. The Office of Food for Peace is one of nine offices that comprise my bureau. Just recently, Food for Peace celebrated its 50th anniversary. For more than half a century, the United States, through its partners and programs, has provided food aid to billions of people in 150 countries. We are very proud of this accomplishment, and the role we have been able to play in helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
Modern U.S. food aid programming traces its beginnings to post-World War II when, in 1954, President Eisenhower signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act, or P.L.480 to share our country's abundant crops with those in need in Europe and other regions. However, food assistance provided by the United States can be tracked as far back as 1812 when President James Madison sent emergency aid to earthquake victims in Venezuela. Early in his administration, President John F. Kennedy underlined the importance of PL 480 to the U.S.- and the rest of the world- by renaming it ''Food for Peace'' and placing it in the newly created U.S. Agency for International Development. ''Food is strength, and food is peace, and food is freedom, and food is a helping to people around the world whose good will and friendship we want,'' Kennedy said.
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Food aid from the United States can be found in many forms and types. In addition to the PL 480 Title I and II programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers the Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program. The newest program, the McGovern-Dole program has already provided assistance to seven million beneficiaries, primarily school children, in its first three years. All U.S. food aid programs provide assistance to a large number of countries with a wide variety of commodities. Fortified vegetable oil when mixed with processed corn soy blend, otherwise known as CSB, provides a wholesome and protein-rich meal for children. Bulk commodities such as grains (sorghum, maize and wheat), and pulses (lentils and beans) are also used.
When you think of all the lives that have been touched by U.S. humanitarian assistance over the years, it is a real testimony to the generosity of the American people. The United States provides half the world's food aid. In 2005 alone, PL 480 programs provided over 3.8 million metric tons of food abroad, including almost half of all contributions to the World Food Program (WFP).
The United States responds to food emergencies by trying to bring the right food to the right people at the right time. This means working to anticipate hunger—as we did this year with the pastoralist crisis in East Africa. It means knowing the people you are trying to help, and making sure that food you provide can and will be used appropriately. And it means knowing who needs the food the most—and recognizing that in times of hunger it is the children, the pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly who need to be found and helped first.
In major emergencies, the United States may provide one third and sometimes up to one-half of the food required by WFP and our non-governmental partners to meet emergency needs. In some cases, however, needs far outstrip other donor's ability or willingness to respond, and we end up providing over 80 percent of all contributions, as we have in Sudan, where we were forced recently to rapidly deploy commodities to minimize ration cuts in Darfur.
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Food aid is a valuable tool for saving lives, but food aid alone cannot reverse the destitution and poverty that underlies the vicious cycle of emergencies that has taken hold in the Horn of Africa, and that is threatening the Sahel and Southern Africa. We tend to equate words like ''drought'' with ''famine''—but they are not the same. The existence of famine is closely related to governance and market issues and that is why African leaders through the African Union's Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Plan (CAADP) have laid out a plan for breaking the cycle of famine in Africa. This does not mean that we cannot help, and that we don't need to help. We do. Preventing famine will require USAID and donor partners to bring all our development tools to the table, and to coordinate our assistance in the countries in which we work in order to maximize the value of every assistance dollar we provide. But most importantly, we must jointly hold the governments we assist accountable for the well being of their people.
As you know, Ambassador Tobias is leading the process of rationalizing U.S. foreign assistance to achieve the goal of ''transformational development''. I want to share with you a few of the things I saw during visits to the Horn of Africa and Niger, which brought home—to me—the extent of the need for this to occur.
CHRONIC NEED AND FAILED GOVERNANCE
As you know, in the Horn of Africa, over the past 3-4 months, we have been facing a large emergency for the third time in six years. I visited the region in April, and even with a robust response on the part of the United States, some needs are not being met. And it is not because we, here in the United States, were not ready.
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