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Kayla Auletto of the World Food Program recently provided an update on President Obama's Feed the Future initiative, a plan to increase agricultural production in developing countries. This program will be run out of the State Department.
Auletto writes,
"Patricia Haslach as the Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy will be working on engaging all key-stakeholders and multilateral partners around the world, like the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), as the United States progresses in this initiative. The new Deputy Coordinator for Development, William Garvelink, will be responsible for the implementation of Feed the Future in the twenty focus countries and oversight of their progress."
While Feed the Future gets its start, there is an urgent need right now to combat escalating hunger emergencies around the globe. It is essential that the leadership in the White House be put in place to combat hunger.
This leadership will come in the form of a food ambassador or coordinator who will oversee the entire government's response to hunger. One has yet to be appointed despite many calls from the World Food Program, Save the Children, and many other aid agencies. The Roadmap to End Global Hunger legislation (H.R. 2817) calls for a White House office on global hunger. So far, only 37 representatives have supported the legislation.
With the global hunger crisis getting worse by the minute, it is time to act. And as George Marshall used to say, "the patient is sinking while the doctors deliberate." Many countries suffering with a hunger crisis could descend so far, it may be nearly impossible to bring them back.
For the Democratic Republic of Congo,Niger, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many others, food security is desperately needed to promote peace. The national security strategy is clearly undermined unless there is a robust effort from the top of the administration to fight hunger.
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