Hunger groups push for boost in U.S. aid budgets

Cutting world hunger needs to be a top priority for the Obama administration and Congress, despite the sagging economy and pressing domestic initiatives, aid groups said on Tuesday. The United States should boost spending on food and agricultural aid by 60 percent in 2010 to $6.36 billion, and commit to further increases to $13.31 billion by 2014, a broad coalition of aid and development organizations said. [...] Groups have forged consensus that traditional emergency shipments of U.S.-grown farm commodities should be balanced with longer-term cash and development programs, said Karen Sendelback, president of Friends of the World Food Program. Farm groups and shippers may fight the move, said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, but cash-based aid can often be faster, cheaper, and more appropriate. "If you're trying to feed babies, corn isn't what you need," Beckmann said.

UN pledges to assist Zimbabwe beyond cholera epidemic

The United Nations has pledged to assist Zimbabwe beyond the cholera epidemic with any other help Harare may require, including reviving the agricultural sector to ensure national food security, The Herald reported on Tuesday. President Mugabe appreciated the humanitarian assistance provided by UN agencies, citing the World Health Organization, World Food Programme(WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund. "We will never, never fail to acknowledge that charitable work that is going on through the WHO, WFP and Unicef," he said.

Sri Lanka: Land deliveries still suspended

Food convoys for thousands of displaced in Sri Lanka’s north remain suspended after more than a month, despite rising concerns over a growing food crisis. “The security situation since 16 January has not been conducive for food convoys to go in,” Adnan Khan, country representative for the World Food Programme [WFP] said in Colombo, citing concerns over small arms fire and possible landmines en route. [...] Earlier this month, the UN food agency warned that the entire population of the Vanni faced a food crisis. “Food assistance is urgently needed for those still trapped in the conflict zone,” Khan told IRIN. “The resumption of convoys will only be possible if there is a lull in the conflict, but right now that’s not happening.” According to the UN, tens of thousands of civilians remain in the Vanni after heavy fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983.

Asia-Pacific: Hunger a growing threat to region

Long-term hunger looms large for millions of people in the world’s fastest-growing region, the Asia-Pacific, unless governments invest heavily in agricultural production and put more money in the hands of the poor, a leading economist has warned. Poverty-stricken rural communities are paying more for their food than people in urban centres, seeing their farm land shrinking due to urbanisation and, despite impressive economic growth, cannot find alternative employment, Hafiz Pasha, former UN diplomat and now dean of the School of Social Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan, told legislators at the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Forum on Inequality and Hunger in Sri Lanka on 16 and 17 February 2009.