New Delhi, July 6 (Inditop.com) The heads of government who are meeting this week for the G8 Summit in Italy need to find $23 billion a year to halve hunger by 2015, according to the latest calculations by development agency ActionAid.
“G8 is failing to help over one billion hungry people. In 2008, they made commitments to tackle the food crisis but since last year, the number of hungry has risen by 100 million,” said Angela Wauye, food rights coordinator at ActionAid Kenya. “Poor people cannot eat promises. This year the G8 must do more.”
ActionAid research suggests that trends which have pushed the number of hungry above one billion are set to worsen unless G8 leaders – who will meet from July 8-10 – take bold action to revive developing world agriculture and reverse global warming.
Food prices are still on the increase in many developing countries while crop yields are stagnant. Rising unemployment and falling incomes as a result of the global recession compound the growing hunger crisis, said a spokesperson of the NGO that works in over 40 countries.
ActionAid has put together a timetable of action for G8 leaders. They must find $23 billion a year by 2012 to meet the UN’s millennium development goals of halving hunger and stop it from spiralling out of control.
France emerges as the champion of current spending on aid to combat hunger while Italy – the current G8 chair – languishes at the bottom, 70 percent off track on its targets.
“As hosts of a summit focussing on food security, Italy must show leadership by putting real money on the table, not empty promises,” said Otive Igbuzor, ActionAid’s head of campaigns. “It would be embarrassing for (Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi to be hosting this summit and allow his country to remain in last place in the fight against hunger.”
ActionAid’s research shows that among the G8 countries, Britain is in second place in the fight against hunger with Germany third, Japan fourth, Canada fifth, the US sixth and Italy in last place.
France currently spends $0.66 billion but needs to spend $1.99 billion by 2012 if it is to pay its “fair share” of the solution to the hunger crisis, ActionAid calculates. “The UK spends $0.60 bn but must pay $1.87 bn by 2012. Germany is spending $0.81 bn but needs to spend $2.61 bn. Japan is spending $1.06 bn but needs to spend $3.69 bn. Canada spends $0.27 bn but must spend $1.05 bn. The US currently spends $2.04 bn but needs to up its share to $10.37 bn by 2012.”
ActionAid is also calling for an ambitious climate change mitigation and adaptation package, a binding and enforceable code of conduct against land deals in developing countries and stopping enforced trade liberalisation.
“The G8 leaders provide one last chance to take bold action on hunger,” said Otive Igbuzor, ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign coordinator. “Next week is it. We are throwing down the gauntlet for the G8 to act.”
ActionAid’s calculations of current donor spending are based on a three-year average of disbursements, in current prices, to the four sectors most relevant to the anti-hunger package of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation: agriculture, forestry and fishing; rural development; biodiversity; and emergency food aid.
They include an imputed share of donor contributions to key multilateral agencies (EC, IFAD and IDA), as well as an imputed share of budget support that can be assumed to contribute to relevant sectors. The amount of budget support ‘credited’ is based on a rough estimate that 5.5 percent of developing country government budgets are spent on relevant sectors.
The rankings are based on the percentage of the “fair share” of aid needed that each donor is currently spending (based on a three-year average of disbursements). Aid needed is based on calculations by FAO, and “fair share” is based on the relative size of each G8 donor’s GDP.
