Hunger to Harvest Resolution Introduced
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Dear Friends of Africa:
Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) and Rep. Don Payne (D-NJ) have just introduced
to the U.S. Congress a Concurrent Resolution. The "Hunger to Harvest
Resolution: A Decade of Concern for Africa" (H.Con.Res. 102) places
the U.S. response to hunger in sub-Saharan Africa within the broad
context of development, economic growth, and AIDS. It would urge the
President to work with other heads of advanced industrial countries
and sub-Saharan African countries to lead a comprehensive program to
cut hunger in half in sub-Saharan Africa. It would also urge the Con-
gress to commit to increased levels of funding for effective, pov-
erty-focused development assistance until significant progress is
made toward reversing the current levels of hunger and poverty. The
additional funding would be targeted towards poverty-focused develop-
ment in the areas of health; education - especially for girls; agri-
culture, food systems, and infrastructure; micro-finance; and debt
relief.
While a Concurrent Resolution does not have the force of law, it is a
valuable vehicle for expressing the sense of the entire Congress on
an issue. It requires dialogue between the two houses - dialogue
which, in this case, focuses on hunger and poverty in sub-Saharan Af-
rica. Because the problems of poverty and hunger cut across and in-
teract with all other sectors, it is important that the challenges
and opportunities in African development be dealt with as comprehen-
sively as possible.
Bread for the World, a nonpartisan national Christian citizens' move-
ment against hunger, is focusing its annual campaign on securing an
additional billion dollars in poverty-focused development assistance
for sub-Saharan Africa. Toward this end, Bread for the World's 45,000
grassroots activists across the country will be writing a quarter of
a million personal letters to their Members of Congress, as they have
done on behalf of the Jubilee 2000 international debt relief initia-
tive and the 'Africa: Seeds of Hope Act' (which passed in 1998).
Bread for the World members will also be visiting local Congressional
district offices, and generating letters to the editor and op-eds in
hometown newspapers around the country.
The Africa: Hunger to Harvest campaign will simultaneously employ two
parallel grassroots efforts: to gain broad-based support for this
Congressional Resolution, and to urge key Congressional appropriators
to increase funding for poverty-focused development assistance to Af-
rica by at least one billion dollars.
As someone who is concerned about Africa, we hope that you will rec-
ognize the importance and urgency of this initiative and join us in
our efforts. If you are part of an organization, we urge you to en-
dorse this campaign. Broad nationwide endorsement is a powerful tool
for showing our leaders the wide-ranging support for cutting hunger
in Africa.
We look forward to working with you on this important effort to cut
hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, and will update you on its progress.
For additional details, please contact:
Ray Almeida
Bread for the World
Tel: +1-202-639-9400 Ext. 232
mailto:ralmeida@bread.org
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