Bread for the World Progress Report
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Dear Friends of Africa:
The following is a brief progress report on the Africa: Hunger to
Harvest campaign and a look our strategy for 2002.
AFRICA: HUNGER TO HARVEST PROGRESS REPORT
Bread for the World�s Africa: Hunger to Harvest campaign aims to win
U.S. leadership for an international effort to reduce hunger and pov-
erty in sub-Saharan Africa, including an increase of $1 billion in
annual U.S. funding for effective, poverty-focused development assis-
tance.
PROGRESS IN 2001
During 2001, Bread for the World members, churches, and allied or-
ganizations sent an estimated 150,000 letters to Congress in support
of the campaign. We won editorial support from newspapers across the
country. Over one hundred organizations endorsed Africa: Hunger to
Harvest. Many church bodies backed the campaign. Bread for the World
continues to be an active member of the Partnership to Cut Hunger in
Africa, which has forged a broad coalition of universities, nongov-
ernmental organizations, U.S. government agencies, and African lead-
ers. The goal of the Partnership is to formulate a vision, strategy
and action plan for renewed U.S. efforts to help African partners cut
hunger significantly. We focused on the Hunger to Harvest congres-
sional resolution, the budget and appropriations process, and lobby-
ing the Bush administration.
The resolution.
Representatives Leach and Payne, and Senators Leahy and Hagel, spon-
sored the Hunger to Harvest congressional resolution (H. Con. Res.
102 and S. Con. Res. 53). It calls on President Bush to develop an
international plan to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa and prom-
ises that Congress will approve the U.S. share of the necessary in-
crease in poverty focused development assistance. The resolution
highlights the importance of assistance for agriculture, health, edu-
cation, microfinance, and debt relief.
Thanks mainly to Bread for the World�s grassroots network of active
members, the Hunger to Harvest Resolution quickly picked up 24 Senate
cosponsors. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent on July 19. The
House version gained 156 cosponsors and passed on December 5, 400 to
9. On December 14, the Senate accepted the House-approved language.
Appropriations.
At the end of 2001, Congress also appropriated close to $400 million
of the $1 billion Bread for the World was seeking for Africa for FY
2002. They increased the Child Survival and Development Assistance
accounts by $ 345 million, and Africa should, based on the pattern of
recent years, receive between $120 and 138 million of this amount.
The $400 million estimate also includes the $229 million Congress ap-
proved for debt relief and about half of the $17 million increase for
IDA. It does not include a supplemental appropriation of $200 million
to the Global Health Fund.
The administration.
The Bush administration has given more high-level attention to Africa
during its first year than any previous administration. Secretary of
State Colin Powell has consistently stressed the importance of Africa
to U.S. interests, and Bread for the World and its allies have en-
couraged the administration at every step. In the run-up to the G-8
Summit in Genoa, President Bush gave a speech about world poverty.
The Summit devoted significant attention to the proposal Africa�s
heads of state have developed for a New Partnership with Africa. In a
July letter to Senator Bob Dole (a Bread for the World board member),
President Bush affirmed his support for the goals of the Hunger to
Harvest Resolution. At the US-Africa Economic Forum in October,
President Bush reaffirmed Africa�s importance to the United States.
STRATEGY FOR 2002
Bread for the World is now lobbying the administration to put their
rhetoric into action as they develop their budget proposal for FY
2003. The four original sponsors of the Hunger to Harvest Resolution
� Senators Leahy and Hagel and Representatives Leach and Payne � sent
a letter urging the President to recommend an increase in poverty-
focused assistance for Africa. Bread for the World will monitor
USAID�s use of FY 2002 appropriations, to check that money is not
shifted from Africa to war-related aid for Central Asia.
Throughout 2002, Bread for the World activists across the country
will be lobbying Congress, especially the appropriations committees,
for a further increase of poverty- focused development assistance to
Africa in FY 2003. We are seeking an increase of $1 billion over the
FY 2001 level. We will focus on specific accounts, probably Develop-
ment Assistance, Child Health, IDA, the Africa Fund, and debt relief.
The Hunger to Harvest Resolution calls for the President to develop a
five-year and a ten-year plan to reduce hunger and poverty in sub-
Saharan Africa. Bread for the World also will try to influence the
Bush administration�s plan. Bread for the World will work with allies
in Africa and other G-8 countries to urge President Bush and his col-
leagues at this June�s G-8 Summit in Alberta, Canada, to adopt a con-
crete plan of action to support the New Partnership for Africa�s De-
velopment, including a major increase in G-8 funding for poverty-
focused development assistance to Africa. (1/9/2002)
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Friends of Africa
mailto:africa@bread.org
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