Global Agriculture and Food Security Program launched

A big announcement was made today that fulfilled a pledge made by wealthy nations a year earlier. A new multi-million dollar fund was established today to fight world poverty and hunger. The United States and other nations that make up the G-8 pledged to create the fund at a meeting in Italy.

The fund will be administered by the World Bank. Canada and Spain have already made contributions to the fund. The United States says it will work on getting the other members of the G-8 to contribute.

From this AFP article that we found at the Raw Story, we find out more about the fund's purpose.

"A global economy where more than one billion people suffer from hunger is not a sustainable one," US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a ceremony launching the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

Canada, Spain, South Korea and the United States, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have already pledged nearly 900 million dollars to the program, initiated as the global economic crisis leaves even more people affected by poverty and hunger.

"At a time of limited resources and large global challenges, this fund will leverage support from around the world to achieve lasting progress against hunger and bolster agricultural productivity and growth," Geithner said.

The fund was first discussed at the G8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy last year, where 14 wealthy nations committed to contributing some 22 billion dollars to invest in agriculture in low-income countries.

It firmed up at the subsequent G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, where world leaders called for the World Bank and interested donor nations to set up a trust fund to help implement some of the pledges made at L'Aquila.

The United States said Thursday that 67 million dollars of its initial contribution to the fund will be transferred in the coming weeks to the World Bank, which will administer the fund.