Geithner and Gates Team Up on Food Security
Efforts to end global hunger got a boost yesterday as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced the initial contributions to a new Global Agriculture and Food Security Program fund hosted by the World Bank Group to “help the world’s poorest farmers grow more food and earn more . . . so they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also pledged $30 million to the fund, in addition to contributions from the United States, Canadian, Spanish and South Korean governments. Also yesterday, Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah discussed “Feed the Future,” the Administration’s global hunger and food security initiative at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Shah provided an outline of how USAID is reshaping its food security programs to better tackle the issue. Center for U.S. Global Leadership Chair Dan Glickman also testified in his role as co-chair of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and along with his co-chair, Catherine Bertini, stated, “Advancing global food security will continue to be in America’s economic, security, and diplomatic interests for the foreseeable future.”
