World leaders pledge £12bn to fight hunger

Leaders of the G8 club of rich nations have promised £12bn ($20bn) to fight hunger in the world’s poorest countries. The sum, £3bn more than had been expected, will pay for a three-year ‘food security’ plan to help poor nations develop their own farming infrastructure. The announcement, on the last day of the three-day G8 summit in L’Aquila, central Italy, came with a G8 statement as saying there is "an urgent need for decisive action" on hunger and poverty. It hasn’t been decided who will manage the fund but there would be close cooperation between the World Bank and the Rome-based UN food agencies, said Franco Frattini, foreign minister of Italy. The aim of the food security fund is to focus on helping people feed themselves rather than giving handouts, countries come to depend on. The way to do this is to put more money in to helping developing countries develop their own farming.

Kanaya Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development welcomed the promise of investment in agriculture in the developing world. "It is time for us to switch because food security is not just food aid," he told the BBC. "It is the ability of people to produce food locally and for them to be able to have access to local markets." Aid organisations will be examining the pledge to make sure that the funding will actually mean new money and not cash that has been transferred from existing budgets in other areas. They have criticised some G8 countries, in particular France and Italy, for failing to deliver on their promises made at a summit four years ago to increase development aid. Save the Children said contributions from G8 countries were already $20bn short of the pledges they made and that figure is likely to rise to $25bn next year.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s billionaire prime minister, had to face down embarrassing accusations last week that Italy had cut its aid budget, saying it was a mistake that would be sorted out. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told Reuters news agency that the key message from African nations was that the G8 had to live up to its commitments. UN food agencies say more than 1bn people in the world are going hungry. A downward trend over last decades in the proportion of the world’s population suffering from hunger has been reversed, in part because of soaring food prices.

By Hayley Jarivs for SOS Children