G-8 commits $20 billion to fight hunger

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Chelsea Wieber

President Obama converses with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso the G-8 summit in Italy. The U.S. pledged $3.5 billion and Japan pledged $3 billion for the initiative. Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

The G-8 announced a $20-billion commitment to fight hunger this morning.

President Obama elaborated on why the G-8 upped their financial commitment to the initiative at a press conference in L'Aquila, Italy earlier in the day.

Finally, we have committed to investing $20 billion in food security — agricultural development programs to help fight world hunger. This is in addition to the emergency humanitarian aid that we provide. And I should just note that going into the meeting we had agreed to $15 billion; we exceeded that mark and obtained an additional $5 billion of hard commitments. We do not view this assistance as an end in itself. We believe that the purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it's no longer needed — to help people become self-sufficient, provide for their families, and lift their standards of living. And that's why I proposed a new approach to this issue — one endorsed by all the leaders here — a coordinated effort to support comprehensive plans created by the countries themselves, with help from multilateral institutions like the World Bank when appropriate, along with significant and sustained financial commitments from our nations.