Emergency Grants to Help People Most Affected by Global Food Crisis
- Filed under: Health News
- Date: Aug 15,2008
Grants to World Food Programme and others to provide nutritious food, support small-scale farmers
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a $17.6 million package of grants to help people most affected by the global food crisis and support small-scale farmers in developing countries.
The largest grant — $10 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) — will continue the organization’s efforts to feed young children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso, where malnutrition rates are staggering. Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam America will receive a total of $7.6 million. These grants include providing food for those most in need; helping families earn money for food through employment opportunities or cash-for-work programs; and helping farmers continue and improve their production in times of crisis.
Rising food and fuel prices have put 950 million people worldwide at risk of hunger and malnutrition, according to the United Nations. Young children, whose early nutritional needs are critical to ensure long-term health, and women are at the greatest risk. Increases in farming costs, such as transportation and fertilizer, are adding to small farmers’ burdens.
While these grants address some of the most urgent consequences of the global food crisis, the foundation is also deeply committed to funding nutritional programs that promote lasting health and supporting long-term, sustainable efforts to help hundreds of millions of small farmers boost their productivity so they can feed their families and overcome poverty.
“The current global food crisis requires immediate action to feed people most at risk,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation’s Global Development Program. ”In the longer term, since agriculture and the needs of small-scale farmers in the developing world have been increasingly neglected in recent decades, we need a significant reinvestment in agricultural development — from donors and developing countries — that focuses on helping small farmers boost their yields and increase their incomes.”
Agricultural development is the largest initiative in the foundation’s Global Development Program. The foundation has made more than $800 million in commitments in the sector with a focus on helping small-scale farmers in Africa and South Asia. The grants span the agricultural value chain — from seeds and soil to farm management and market access — so that millions of small farmers have the tools and opportunities to live healthy, productive lives.
Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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