STRENGTHENING POLITICAL WILL CRITICAL TO OVERCOMING HUNGER CRISIS SAYS ALLIANCE TO END HUNGER PRESIDENT

Washington, DC, June 5, 2008 – Rev. David Beckmann, president of the Alliance to End Hunger and Bread for the World, urged full funding for the International Alliance Against Hunger (IAAH) in a speech at the U.N.’s High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome. 

One of three nongovernmental representatives invited to speak at the plenary session, Rev. Beckmann argued that building political will to overcome hunger is a critical response to the current hunger crisis.  He called on the Rome-based U.N. food and agriculture agencies (WFP, FAO and IFAD) to provide adequate funding for the IAAH, a group they created in 2002 to build advocacy institutions around the world that would defend the political interests of hungry and poor people.

“Conferences and reports over many years have concluded that it is feasible to end world hunger.  They have appealed, again and again, for the necessary political will.  This experience has taught us that conferences and reports are not enough…political will needs to be built.

Rev. Beckmann sited the work of the Alliance to End Hunger, the U.S. representative to the IAAH, as an example of how a diverse group of institutions can effectively leverage their efforts to build the political will to end hunger.  By harnessing the advocacy resources of its 63 members – corporations, universities, non-profit organizations, and faith-based groups – the Alliance is elevating hunger on the national agenda by studying how voters think about hunger and encouraging the strongest anti-hunger leaders in Congress to take more and bolder action on behalf of hungry people.

“The International Alliance has initiated or strengthened national alliances against hunger in more than 20 countries…But if the Rome agencies would provide additional funding for the International Alliance, they would leverage much larger changes in the politics of hunger.

Click here to listen to the audio or read the remarks by Rev. David Beckmann to the plenary session of the U.N. High-Level Conference on World Food Security.  To read Rev. Beckmann's full report on the conference, click here.

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The Alliance to End Hunger engages diverse institutions in building the public and political will to end hunger at home and abroad by developing innovative partnerships among our members; political commitment among our leaders; and global connections among groups working to end hunger worldwide. The Alliance has more than 60 members -- corporations, non-profit groups, universities, individuals, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious bodies.

The International Alliance Against Hunger was created on the recommendation of the World Food Summit.  The goal of the International Alliance is to strengthen global and national resolve to address the problems of hunger and malnutrition on a scale that matches the enormity of the problems – with an eye toward achieving the first Millennium Development Goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015.