Bread Blog

Foreign Aid Reform: Making Real Changes for Those Who Need it Most

After watching the debate that I outlined in my previous post, I spent some time reflecting about its implications to the work Bread is doing. I found that both sides brought up important points in defense of foreign aid reform (many of which Bread already uses). On one side of the issue is the sheer, abject poverty that exists in the developing world. There is no question in my mind that, in order to give those who are in that kind of poverty a chance to improve their lives and the state of their country, aid needs to be given; moreover, it needs to occur on a government level, since only governments can mobilize the kinds of funds necessary to significantly improve lives.

However, the methods through which aid is allocated need to become more efficient and effective. An improvement in this area requires two paths: a uniform direction and strategy for our government’s foreign assistance, in order to ensure that the aid gets to where it is going more efficiently and a change in the perception of Africa and its needs. The first point I believe can be addressed with legislative action and a change in our government’s foreign aid assistance, but the second requires an immense input by the general population and a change in people’s mindsets. We need a realization that Africa cannot rely on aid alone for ever. Job training and agricultural development need to take center stage in order to create real change in people’s lives as opposed to a constant stream of money and goods. Finally, and most importantly, the populations of all the developing nations need to stop simply feeling sorry for Africa. Instead of treating Africa like a street child simply begging for scraps, the world powers need to take movements towards legitimate equal partnerships with African nations. Only through mobilizing the people into changing the national image of Africa as a beggar, to Africa as a young, but potentially brilliant, entrepreneur in need of an opportunity, can real changes be made. 

It is in this area that a organization such as Bread for the World can make all the difference. It has the resources to educate the general population, the structure to connect the people to those who make the decisions, and the calling to accomplish it all.

I find that these sentiments are very well supported by Paul Collier’s closing remarks in the Munk Debate, which I paraphrase: In order to create change the governments need to get serious. Look at the Marshall Plan, in that situation the government got serious and change was made. However democratic governments act at the will of the people, so the people get the type of aid that they deserve. If they want politicians kissing babies and showing how sorry they feel for the people of Africa, that is what they are going to get. In order to make real change, people need to get informed, and motivate their governments to do what needs to be done and bring legitimate change to the developing world.

Learn how you can get involved with foreign aid reform by visiting Bread's action center.

"To The Light"

Check out this YouTube video by Elise Young, former Bread organizer.  She wrote and performed the song in the video.   

Voices of the poor

So often when we go out and advocate for policy change to help the lives of those who suffer from the anguish of desperate poverty we do so with statistics.  “USDA reported that 36.2 people are living in food insecure households, that is almost one in eight Americans.”  But what is often missing are the voices and faces of those whose lives reflect the everyday reality of not having shelter over their heads in inclement weather or enough food to fill their stomachs on any given day or the dignity to know that their lives matter.

I have always found it is that personal connection of showing another person respect and dignity that I most often meet my Creator and connect to my faith in a tangible way.  “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of thee least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40).

Yesterday, our amazing volunteer Oregon State Coordinator, Mike Hiland, set up a meeting with Sisters of the Road inviting myself and fellow organizer in the Western Region, Matt Newell-Ching.  We had the privilege and opportunity to live out our faith by sharing a simple meal with people of very low income or that lived on the street.  Sisters of the Road is all about dignity and inclusion.  Meals at reduced prices are shared at communal tables with an emphasis on hospitality.  Although, Sister’s is not a Christian organization, one could truly feel the truth in the example of what Christ showed us through his gospel in that room.  How often do you sit and break bread with a stranger and leave friends.  I left feeling we had experienced a living Eucharist.

We also left with a book that Executive Director Monica Beemer gave us called “Voices from the Street.”   The book is not a narration of what life on the street is by some academic or a set of analyzed statistics, but is told in the voices of those who experience on a daily basis what poverty does to lives through a series of intimate interviews.  It is a story of humanity, intelligence, dignity and in many ways hope.  In looking through the book, one line of an interview really caught my attention and summed up for me what the body of Christ is all about.  It is in the section on solutions to homelessness where the impoverished are brought to the table an asked what they need.  This interviewee Bryan was talking about the need to live in community.

“Sisters:  What is the importance of having neighbors?

Bryan:  A sense of community.  People live together; that is one of the things that we have done since the beginning of time.  We need to feel like we are part of something.  We need to feel like we are associated with each other and that those associations are not necessarily meaningless.”

It is a book I highly recommend.  Mike has written a wonderful blog post on the Oregon Bread site about how to connect to the website to link the interviews and where you can purchase the book.

World AIDS Day

Today, December 1, 2008, marks the 20th Anniversary of World Aids Day.  From a red glowing space needle in Seattle, Washington, to a prayer walk in Mbarara, Uganda, millions of people will spend the day bringing awareness to and taking action on an epidemic that does not discriminate by age, gender, class nor does it have borders.

Since the 1980’s, the global community has done much to combat HIV/AIDS, but the number of those infected continues to rise with over 33 million people today living with the disease.  Many of those who live with the HIV virus live in the developing world with inadequate access to medical care and life saving treatments, as well as lack of comprehensive education on how to prevent the spread of AIDS.

The U.S. has been a leader in the global fight against AIDS and in 2003 launched the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).   In July of this year Congress reauthorized PEPFAR, with overwhelming support from the American people who wrote letters and made phone calls to their Congressional members.

But still we need to do more!  Hunger and AIDS in the developing world go hand and hand.  Those who suffer from AIDS in the developing world need more than just medicine.  They need nutritious food as well.  AIDS affects more than those who live with the disease but leaves in its wake, millions of orphaned children.    This is why when the world’s countries adopted 8 goals that address the root causes of  poverty, HIV/AIDS made the list as number six (The Millennium Development Goals).  AIDS, poverty and hunger are all intertwined.  We must take a holistic approach at the global problems of today for long term and effective solutions tomorrow.

Global Hunger Crisis

The USDA published its Food Security Assessment this month.  It reports a rise in hunger around the world.  Institute Notes discusses the report and some of the implications of these findings. 

In the past couple years, we witnessed great progress in the battle against hunger.  People were getting on the first rung of the ladder - making their way out of poverty.  Yet, the rising cost of fuel and food is having a tragic impact on some of the world's most vulnerable people  It's tough to process a set back of these dimensions.  In many ways, this report provides a greater sense of urgency in our work.  We have seen progress.  We know it can be done. Read more about the current crisis.

I've spoken with a number of Bread for the World members in the past month about the global food crisis.  I've asked them, "What are your churches doing in response to the global hunger crisis?" and I'm encouraged by their response.  Many communities are increasing their contributions to development projects around the world.  Others have responded to the immediate needs of their community by opening up the church food pantry more often.  This fall, some churches will organize an Offering of Letters and communicate their concerns to their members of congress. 

What is your church doing to respond?  How can we support you in your advocacy efforts?

Recipe for Hope: Respond to the Hunger Crisis

You can make a difference in the global hunger crisis.

It's in the news nearly every day: Food prices are soaring worldwide. More low-income people in the United States are making trips to food banks, whose stocks are quickly depleting. In developing countries, for the world's poorest people—who spend up to 80 percent of their income to buy food—the situation is even more devastating. 

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But you have the power to be part of the solution.  JOIN THE CAMPAIGN

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For six weeks, from Mother's Day through Father's Day, Bread for the World will conduct an online campaign to help hunger activists raise awareness and take action. Each week, an email from Bread will offer the ingredients for:

• Recipe for Despair
  More information on the causes of this crisis; and a


• Recipe for Hope
  Specific actions you can take to help end it. You can also invite your friends to join the campaign.

It's easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Be part of the Recipe for Hope, and be part of the solution.

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JOIN THE CAMPAIGN 

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Learn more about rising food prices and the hunger crisis.

Read Bread's press release on the Recipe for Hope and invite your friends to join on Facebook.

We'll also be updating the blog during the six-week campaign with the actions we'll be urging folks to take - thank you in advance for joining!  It's quick and free to sign up, and it matters - right now.

Could You Eat on $21 a Week?

The average food stamp recipient receives $1 per meal per day. Would you like to see two members of Congress try living on that diet? The co-chairs of the Congressional Hunger Caucus did just that.

In the May edition of breadcast, we hear from Reps. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) discuss what it was like for them eat like people on food stamps for a week. And our producer, Brian Duss, discusses his own adventures on the “Food Stamp Challenge.”

When you subscribe to breadcast on iTunes or download it from our Web site you’ll also get our legislative update, music from Keith Green, and hear more about a food stamp diet from food bank director George Jones, nutritionist Tracy Fox and Mark Andersen from We Are Family Senior Outreach Network.

The Drama of Hunger

I am convinced
That if all mankind
Could only gather together
In one circle
Arms around each other's shoulders
And dance, laugh and cry
            Together
      Then much
           of the tension and burden
                      of life
           Would fall away

                 -Leonard Nimoy

How many times have we thought to ourselves that ending hunger and poverty is an insurmountable problem?  And how many times have we countered that thought by considering the possibilities if we all put our hearts and minds together to address this problem.

And then you're faced with considering a wide range of emotions.

Do you cry because the suffering is so real? Consider the example of a mother (anywhere in the world) having to choose between feeding her children and getting enough to eat. 

Do you laugh because we want to make fun of some of the situations that cause the suffering?  For example, any clown can tell you that that the amount of money we spend on some goods and services (ice cream, perfume, ocean cruises, pet services) every year far exceeds what it would cost hunger and malnutrition at the global level.

Laugh? or Cry? or Both? 

That's what the students enrolled in the class Hunger: A Theatrical Expression considered as part of a class project.  This was one of more than a dozen classes offered through the Research Service Learning Program at the University of New Mexico during the spring semester 2008.

The class involved many aspects of theater, from writing the script to designing the set and costumes to acting out the various roles that they created in a play entitled Hungry Machine.  Before the students wrote the script, they had to do extensive research to ensure that their play was not a superficial look at hunger. The looked at a wide range of resources (including several copies of the Bread for the World Institute's annual hunger reports) and held dialogues with a couple of guest speakers.  "They spent the entire first month of the semester doing research," said Anna Saggese, one of two instructors  Anna and fellow instructor Riti Sachdeva also directed the play.

Here's an excerpt from the program:

"One in three New Mexicans face food insecurities"

With this sentence, the class began a journey of discovery.  We wanted to know what food insecurity is, who feels it, what it looks like, tastes like, where it begins and how to combat it.  Through the research process, we started to unearth our personal relationships with food.  We saw how food is an integral part of family, culture, survival and saiety. We looked at a lack of food and its impact on the individual and our larger communities.

The students then proceeded to put together the play, which consisted of about 10 vignettes involving many topics related to hunger, poverty and food. Some were monologues, others involved mimes and clowns.  There was even a humorous sketch where a schoolteacher-type nun (with a German accent!) spoke about the impact of genetic engineering on the food supply.  Underlying the various topics were what the students determined were six causes or effects of hunger: gender discrimination, vulnerability of children and the elderly, population growth and consumption, poverty and powerlessness, violence and militarism, and racism and ethnocentricity. 

Here's what they said:

As we shared our writing we noticed interesting connections.  Most of our main characters are women.  A few are pregnant women.  We realize a definite connection between food and mothers.  Most of the monologues address topics that evoke a multitude of responses: anger, grief, fear, and even laughter.  This performance is testimony to our process of uncovering the very complex truths about hunger in our state and in our world.

The resulting product was a very powerful play that spoke to the audience at many levels,  with the message that hunger, while complex, is a problem that can be solved if we take time to learn about its underlying causes.  Click here for program and cast information 

To express their commitment to addressing the problem, the students in the class decided to include the opportunity for the audience to write letters as part of Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters campaign, which asks Congress to increase funding for poverty-focused development assistance by at least $5 billion.

Are International Food Prices related to Hunger?

Robert Paarlberg, author of a recent article in the International Herald Tribune and a professor at Wellesley College, says they are not. According to Paarlberg, international prices of rice, wheat, and corn have risen sharply setting off urban protests in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. However, he argues that these food prices are not related to real hunger crises because most of the world's hungry people do not use international food markets, and most of those who use these markets are not hungry. In fact, international food markets are used by those who are more prosperous, not those who face starvation. The biggest importers for corn, for example, are Japan, the European Union, and South Korea, where citizens are generally well-fed despite rising food prices. In contrast, in the poorest developing countries of Asia, imports supply only 4% of total consumption. Similarly, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 16% of grains are imported, and even these go to more prosperous cities rather than the impoverished countryside, with part arriving in the form of donated food aid rather than commercial purchases at world prices. Instead, Paarlberg argues that Africa's food crisis is the result of the low productivity of the 60 percent of all Africans who plant crops and graze animals for a living. This is because

the average African smallholder farmer is a woman who has no improved seeds, no nitrogen fertilizers, no irrigation and no veterinary medicine for her animals. Her crop yields are only one third as high as in the developing countries of Asia, and her average income is only $1 a day.

Thus, he argues that the long-term solution to such problems is not lower international prices or more food aid, but larger investments in the productivity of farmers in Africa. He then blames the international donor community for their resistance to support agricultural modernization in the developing world. For example, he cites the fact that over the past two decades the U.S. Agency for International Development has cut its support for agricultural science in Africa by 75 percent.

Though I think Paarlberg makes valid points, I am a little wary of his emphasis on increased investment in agriculture in the form of "improved seeds and nitrogen fertilizers." Though it is important to invest in rural farmers, I will be cautious to advocate for increased reliance on biotechnology because of the undue harm that can be caused to the environment. Paarlberg himself even states that "because of the added burden of climate change, the number of undernourished people in Africa is now expected to triple by 2080, whatever the level of prices on the world market." Researchers have shown that many aspects of modernized agriculture, including GM crops can actually be very harmful to the environment, leading to the creation of superpests, superweeds, and reducing biodiversity. Such harm to the environment will ultimately hurt the plight of the small farmer even more since his very livelihood depends on the environment. Vandana Shiva has also made the connection between biotechnology and biopiracy. It can be very problematic if small farmers in developing countries begin buying "improved seeds" from major corporations like Monsanto. Monsanto has argued that farmers should not be allowed to save their seeds because GM seeds have been patented and thus the property of Monsanto. If this happens, farmers will need to buy new seeds from Monsanto every year, which they may not even be able to afford. This will ultimately lead to greater poverty and hunger. I also wonder if higher prices for imported foods might actually benefit small farmers who have been struggling to compete with these prices that have been too low for years. My point is, that though increased productivity for rural farmers is important, there is no easy quick-fix solution. The causes and effects of any policy change must first be examined carefully to make sure that no undue harm occurs and that we understand how best to address hunger before making hasty policy decisions.

Painting the Picture

Thought it might be helpful to provide some articles appearing this week that relate directly to the content of the calls we're urging you to make by noon tomorrow (Friday, April 25th, see post below this).

All of these articles really bring home the broad scope (and gravity) of the issues that are directly (negatively) affecting small farmers and poor and hungry people here and abroad right now.  So if you were looking for more context, understanding or empathy on all this craziness, these are a few from the many helpful articles that are featuring prominently these past few weeks.  And then make sure you call - Your representatives and senators can do something dramatic and meaningful about it!
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Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

"His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.”

That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments."

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Food Crisis is Depicted as 'Silent Tsunami'

""Hunger is a moral challenge to each one of us as global citizens, but it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of poor nations around the world," Brown said, adding that 25,000 people a day are dying of conditions linked to hunger.

"With one child dying every five seconds from hunger-related causes, the time to act is now," Brown said, pledging $60 million in emergency aid to help the WFP feed the poor in Africa and Asia, where in some nations the prices of many food staples have doubled in the past six months.

Brown said the "vast" food crisis was threatening to reverse years of progress to create stronger middle classes around the world and lift millions of people out of poverty."

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Farm Income Up, but Subsidies Stay

"In other words, Congress seems oblivious. And longstanding critics of American policy are piling on.

“It really is astounding,” said Representative Ron Kind, Democrat of Wisconsin, who has pushed for broad changes in farm subsidy programs. “It’s as if this farm bill is being negotiated in a vacuum.”"

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NOW - MAKE THOSE CALLS!  And let us know how it went in the comment section - thank you!