"How to feed the hungry billion" -- the Christian Science Monitor

By the editorial board of the Christian Science Monitor.

Before the global economic crisis, there was the global food crisis. Last year, soaring prices for basic foods sparked riots in about 30 countries. In June, the UN held a summit to tackle it. In July, the G-8 pledged to act. But in the fall, the floor fell out from the financial markets. Now, like a mountain of maize, countries' economic worries threaten to bury their concerns about rising world hunger.

Food prices have eased on global markets, but they remain high in many countries. Price volatility, the credit crunch, and shrinking coffers (both private and government) are making it harder for farmers to get loans to invest and plant.

At a follow-up conference on hunger this week, the United Nations announced that 40 million people joined the ranks of the "undernourished" in 2008, bringing the number of hungry people to nearly 1 billion – or roughly 1 in 7. Yet donor nations have delivered only a trickle of the $22 billion they pledged last year.

Meanwhile, food production must double by 2050 to head off mass hunger amid a global population surge from 6.5 billion to 9 billion, the UN said.

The world can solve this problem. In the 1960s, a technological "green revolution" in grain yields, irrigation, and fertilizers greatly increased food production, especially in Asia. Allowing communal farmers to earn and trade privately went a long way to alleviate hunger in post-Mao China. And economic growth and social programs have helped in Latin America.

But Africa stands stubbornly off the track of agricultural progress, and hunger still plagues many countries in South Asia. Climate change is expected to exacerbate production problems in these places, and once the world economy begins to recover, expect food prices to rise again as demand increases and more food is diverted to bio-fuels.

Once again, the world knows how to respond, but will it?

Tackling climate change, ending wars, and reducing agricultural subsidies that clog trade channels are three overarching needs. But they are also difficult to achieve.

Relatively quick and substantial progress can be made if nations rededicate themselves to international aid for agriculture, which has dropped from 13 percent of all development aid in the early 1980s to only 3 percent now. They must also better coordinate among themselves and with nonprofits.

Simply improving food storage could increase production by 30 to 40 percent in many poor countries, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Building roads could get more goods to market. In sub-Saharan Africa, just 4 percent of arable land is irrigated, compared with 38 percent in Asia.

Research needs a boost, too, as adapting pests, for instance, erode yields over time.

The FAO estimates that only $30 billion per year, invested in farm infrastructure and production, could eradicate the root causes of world hunger by 2025. That compares with the $825 billion stimulus package that the US Congress is debating.

Last summer, political momentum was building behind a UN effort to increase agri-aid, focus on small farmers, and better coordinate antihunger efforts. The momentum must be maintained.

"Want to Volunteer?" -- by Meredith Bowen

Want to Volunteer?

I just read one of the recent blog entries and it reminded me that the whole purpose of Episcopalians’ for Global Reconciliation is to inspire people to do what they can – to find out What One Person Can Do and to revel in the amazing effects that One Person can have on the world.

I, in turn, felt inspired to offer some ideas about getting involved. I am currently the Volunteer Coordinator for the Foundation for African Medicine and Education. We have had a flurry of activity recently at the FAME Clinic in Karatu, Tanzania – with visiting doctors and nurses. These docs and nurses volunteer their time for a few weeks a year, helping to bring medical care to those in need.

Are you a doctor? A nurse? Have a few weeks to volunteer? Check out www.fameafrica.org.

Not a doctor or a nurse, but have some time to volunteer? Always wanted to volunteer in a foreign country? Or right here at home in the US? Then GO FOR IT!!! The internet is at your finger tips, waiting to offer suggestions. Ask friends and family for recommendations. Find a project that inspires you to jump in and help out!

As we embark on 2009, I challenge you to volunteer. Here are some of our recent volunteers – inspiring you to DO WHAT YOU CAN!!!

Meredith Bowen -is a student at law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, spending the fall semester in Arusha, Tanzania doing an internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Has volunteered in Tanzania with the Rift Valley Childrens Village (an orphanage) as well as with the Anglican Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro and the Diocese of Tanga. Started the African Orphan Education Fund to award scholarships for secondary school and university.

"The Role of Government" -- by John Hammock

Up until just a few weeks ago, growth, spurred by the private sector and the market, was the centerpiece of development thinking. If you believe that growth in the economy will benefit everyone in the end, why would you need government services to serve the poor? Well, hand in hand with an unwavering faith in economic growth has been a move to “let the economy do it.”

There has been a full frontal attack on the role of the state—by those who believe that privatization is best and government should downsize. These suggestions have been made where healthcare has been concerned and it has not worked. The Millennium Project points out that for the last 20 years there has been a focus on the producer-consumer, privatized and fee-for-service model to improve systemic health care issues. Governments have asserted that there would be programs to help the most poor to procure healthcare, while others would buy healthcare services. However, this has not been effective at providing health care for all and one of the major barriers facing women who die due to maternal health issues continues to be access to affordable healthcare. Subsequently, the Millennium Project advocates making fundamental changes to the way health care reforms have been conceptualized by highlighting the importance of government.

The state is the only body that can look beyond private interests and keep an eye on the needs, rights and responsibilities of all citizens. It does not have a mandate to profit and should not become tired of serving the public. It is the responsibility of the state to regulate corporations and ensure that society is meeting the needs of all its members.

Government has a strong role to play in poverty reduction. This flies in the face of the dominant neo-liberal economic ideology that calls for government to cut services and to downsize. Some suggest that civil society can pick up the slack where governments have become inactive. That’s misguided thinking. Private charity, including Church charirity, is not enough—not enough money and not enough sustainability. NGOs do not have the resources that governments do. Additionally, they do not often have country-wide strategies for poverty reduction, rather they are locally based or focused. One NGO, with the best of intentions, may arrive in a country and build a number of clinics in one area and another NGO may come in and build a few clinics in another area. While it may be positive to increase the number of clinics in a country, this activity could be inefficient or scattered and thus ineffective. If NGOs are not working as part of a coordinated health approach that helps to meet an overall strategy for health care in the country, their activity may not be meeting the country’s needs. And this coordination must come from a national or state body has that has political legitimacy.

Additionally, if NGO, church, corporate or individual efforts to help others is based on benevolence or charity, it’s going to work for a day or two and maybe even a number of years. However, when that NGO, corporation or individual gets tired of giving, decides it wants to give for something else or its donors pull the funds, then the charity is going to end and those resources will leave. And then what? Do we just tell a community that its healthcare isn’t important enough to sustain? So the issue is how to build programs that are sustainable over time. The answer is to work to ensure that governments have the ability to strengthen and sustain their own systems and to provide the policy incentives and frameworks for private as well as public services. Yes, this is harder than just donating money to a local nonprofit. Yes, this is a mind change about working with governments rather than only putting our faith in the private sector—profit or non-profit.. And yes, it’s easy to say and incredibly tough to do. However, if real change is going to occur, it’s what we have to do.

Governments do not have to be wealthy to provide the context for human development and services that will cut poverty and help to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Money is important, but it is not the only thing required. Government will and policies are as important, if not more important, than funding.

Maternal mortality is highest in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia and lowest in industrialized countries like the United States. However, one shouldn’t assume that just because a country is in the Global South, it is destined for a high maternal mortality rate. The case of Cuba, a country with 33 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, when other countries in Latin America are in the 100s, shows that it is possible for a developing country to successfully implement a maternal health strategy. It is hard to use Cuba as an example, since political ideology gets wrapped up into the discussion before one even finishes mentioning the country’s name. And we are certainly not advocating for the Cuban system of government. However, Cuba has done a good job at using limited funds in a way that responds to maternal health needs. In 1990, when the Soviet Union fell, Cuba lost its largest trading partner as well as a large amount of economic assistance, totaling an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion annually. Although the government cut its overall spending dramatically, it did not drop education and health completely and still considered health a priority for the country’s budget. It’s expenditure of 6.5% of GDP on health shows political will to keep the health system strong. Other countries that spend 6.5% of GDP on health include Canada and Switzerland. Political will and resulting government decisions on money, even in poor countries, can greatly impact maternal health and social services in general.

1 UN Millennium Project, Who’s Got the Power, 39-41.
2 Ibid., 109.
3 See Ibid., 102 for a chart on the renovations of country health systems that are suggested in order to make systems work better for maternal health.
4 See statistics for individual countries at UNICEF, Information by Country, Statistics Pages: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry.
5 United States International Trade Commission. The Economic Impact of U.S. Sanctions With Respect to Cuba, Washington D.C., February 2001, USITC Publication 3398, 3-8 (78). http://hotdocs.usitc.gov/docs/pubs/332/pub3398.pdf. (Accessed December 23, 2005.)
6 Acosta, Dalia. 2002. “HEALTH-CUBA: Maternal-Infant Mortality Down Despite Crisis.” Inter Press Service, January 16, 2002. http://ww2.aegis.org/news/ips/2002/IP020103.html. (Accessed December 23, 2005.)
7 United Nations Development Program. Human Development Report 2005: International Cooperation at a Crossroads: Aid Trade and Security in an Unequal World. “Human Development Indicators: Table 6: Commitment to health: resources, access and services,” 236.
8 Ibid.

"The Millennium Village Project--Mayange Drought" -- Reynolds Whalen

Reynolds Whalen is living in Rwanda working for Millennium Congregation, linking congregations with the work of Millennium Villages Project in that nation. His work is chronicling the work going on there and he will be posting regular videos to this blog. Here's his first, about the drought in Mayange, Rwanda and the work of the Millennium Villages Project to address it.

"Inauguration Day" -- by Craig Cole

Sunday night I was driving back fromour church home group on Interstate 66 headed east from Haymarket to Fairfax, VA. The big neon traffic signs reminded all drivers that there would be delays on Tuesday because of the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, Barak Obama. On Tuesday all the bridges from Northern Virginia into the District will be closed and security will be tight. There is an exciting buzz of anticipation for change.

Living near Washington, D.C. there is this ever present aura of self-importance and power. In the end this can be a self-fulfilling delusion or illusion that keeps real change from happening. As individuals we become our own personal saviors. We believe we can make things happen on our own power. We make decisions based on measurable goals and become blind with ambition as we network with other high-powered people convincing them our plan is the best one. In this area of the world, we sometimes look at the government as an entity that bestows salvation. The government will fix the economic crisis, health care and education. With a few consultants and a lot of money, we start to believe the federal government will save us. Technology becomes another savior. A faster computer, a more energy efficient car, robots to clean the house and will be well with the world.

As Christians we can’t replace God with these false idols. Only God can save us. And it is through individuals that God performs this miracle using flawed sinners like Moses, King David, and in our time, Martin Luther King, Jr. In Acts 4, the Apostles are called uneducated and ordinary. Yet they changed the world!

The theme of Episcopalians for Reconciliation is What Can One Person Do? The reason I serve on the EGR board is that question is powerfully liberating. The follow up question is, “What is God Calling me to do?” It is a question we must ask ourselves this inauguration day

Are you being called to be the next Moses, the next Martin Luther King, Jr.? Or are you called to be the person who makes sure the elderly neighbors have enough to eat and heat in their homes on a cold wintry day.

This inauguration day is about change and a new future. Use this day to inaugurate change in your own life. Ask God through prayer and reading the scriptures to set a call on your life. So you may find out what you can do to further God’s mission and to change lives for the better.

Craig Cole is the Executive director of Five Talents International, an Anglican microfinance nonprofit, a member of Diocese of Virginia's Mission Commission and an EGR board member.

"Episcopal Relief and Development offers 2009 Lenten Devotional"

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) has published its 2009 Lenten Devotional, Peace and Compassion: To Heal a Hurting World, which features daily meditations adapted from the Rev. Barbara C. Crafton's Almost-Daily Emos.

"The reflections lead readers to explore their spiritual connections to people living in poverty around the world," an ERD release said. "Focusing on Episcopal Relief and Development's efforts to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the devotional offers ways for parishioners to promote health, fight disease and save lives through the MDG Inspiration Fund."

For the first time, the devotional is available in Spanish and can be downloaded here.

Last year, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori declared the first Sunday in Lent, as the first annual commemoration of Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday. Jefferts Schori is again encouraging Episcopalians in congregations across the country to use the first Sunday in Lent to engage with Episcopal Relief and Development during this traditional season of almsgiving.

"As Lent begins, I encourage you to include Episcopal Relief and Development in your giving as you consider how to care more deeply for those in need," said Jefferts Schori. "Episcopal Relief and Development's work with disasters, from Gaza to Costa Rica, and ongoing development work, from Honduras to Tanzania, is care-filled and effective."

A bulletin insert with additional information about Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday, February 28, is available here.

"Lent is an ideal time for us to renew our commitment to our faith and each other," said Brian Sellers-Peterson, Episcopal Relief and Development's director of Church Engagement Programs. "During this season of prayer and self-examination we hope that the Lenten Devotional will encourage Episcopalians to reflect on the role of God's grace in our lives and how we may act as instruments of God's healing in a hurting world."

Lenten Devotionals and other resources should be ordered by Monday, February 16 to ensure delivery by Ash Wednesday. To order copies of the devotionals, call Episcopal Books and Resources at 1-800-903-5544 or visit www.er-d.org/LentenResources.

To help Episcopal Relief and Development achieve the Millennium Development Goals, visit www.er-d.org, or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief & Development, "MDG Inspiration Fund" PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.

"Maize in Mombassa" -- from the "One Dollar Diet Project"

Today's post introduces you to a wonderful blog -- the "One Dollar Diet Project." It's the chronicle of two social justice teachers who decided to eat on one dollar a day. They did it for one month (you can look in the archives for that month's posts) and have continued to blog on global poverty -- including their recent trip to east Africa. The blog also contains "dollar a day recipes" and a food cost index. They do not recommend anyone try this experiment, by the way, because "it isn't health and could be dangerous." Which tells you something about the people who have to eat on a dollar a day. Here is their latest post.

Having spent the last few days in the coastal town of Mombassa in Kenya, I have borne witness (once again) to the reality of third-world poverty. In speaking with teachers here, whose students receive nourishment twice a day in the form of a wheat based porridge, it is clear the poverty here is far different from that in the United States.

Jane Omondi teaches fifth grade at the Kelegeni Primary School, a place where over 1,000 students are taught by just under a dozen teachers. Most of the students are orphans, and what little food they receive comes from an outside assistance program.

“Kenya is not a poor country, it is a mismanaged country,” Omondi said.

This is evident by the fact that government leaders rake in an annual salary of 800k shillings, while children starve in overcrowded school rooms.

To make matters worse, a teacher’s strike looms. Primary school teachers here are underpaid, and unwilling to take the government’s raise offer of 250 shillings. To give you an idea of how pathetic the gesture is, Maize-flour (a staple here in Kenya) is 120 shillings a pound (about$1.50).

The idea that these folks could do anything to overcome the situation is more than far-fetched. The city is crowded, school fees for secondary education are high, and jobs are few. This situation leads to higher levels of crime, and is an obstacle to overall safety and security.

For those with money, Mombassa offers resorts and golf courses, movie theaters and large grocery stores. For those without, there is burning trash, and bare feet.

While our economy is hurting, being here puts things in perspective.