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U.S. urged to do more to address food security crisis in Africa

Other News Materials 19 January 2009 22:37 (UTC +04:00)

A UN envoy said on Monday that United States is not fulfilling its part of responsibility in addressing the food crisis in Africa which has gripped the continent and left millions of people wallowing in poverty, Xinhua reported.

UN Special Advisor on Millennium Development Goals Prof. Jeffrey Sachs said the 5 billion U.S. dollars worth of aid per year in Africa is the lowest to the Western world and is barely enough to address the agricultural programs for Africa.

Addressing a news conference in Nairobi, Sachs, who is also director of Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York said that Washington is channeling only 1 percent of its Gross National product towards Africa's food needs.

"Wars in the world are caused by crises of hunger and armies cannot solve these wars as long as people in wastelands are hungry, " Sachs told journalists. "As long as there are people in want of food, the world will not be safe."

The expert hoped that the new U.S. administration will address the variance.

He pledged to assist Kenya in mobilizing emergency support that will include assistance to small scale farmers and pastoralists to raise productivity at a summit to be held in Madrid next week.

"Our donor communities tend to focus on these things that are symptoms, rather than deeper causes and practical solutions.

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