WASHINGTON - March 24 - Testifying before the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today at a hearing on global food security, Bread for the World President Rev. David Beckmann urged Congress to move forward on broad reform of the current U.S. foreign assistance system.  "We hope Congress will pull several aid agencies together into one accountable agency, focus it clearly on development and poverty reduction, and allow it to be responsive to local needs and priorities," he said.  "That would make room for substantially more funding for agricultural development and lead to better ongoing coordination across the government on hunger and other development issues."

He described the current act, first implemented in 1961 under President Kennedy, as woefully outdated, inefficient, and ill-equipped to provide the level of relief needed to address hunger and poverty in today's more populous, complex world.  "U.S. foreign assistance does great work and has helped millions of poor farmers around the globe to feed their families," he said, "but if we make it more efficient, it can do so much more with the funding currently in place."

On a recent trip to Mozambique and Malawi, Rev. Beckmann saw firsthand how U.S. foreign assistance helps African farmers.  "The farmers I visited in Malawi benefit from extension services, improved varieties, and rural roads, while those across the lake in Mozambique have none of that -- and they are much poorer," he said.  "However, I was heartened to see U.S. assistance at work even in far-off Mtimbe, a tiny farming village of about 40 mud homes where the great majority of the kids are in school, partly because of debt relief.  I met people who had been at death's door, but are now farming and taking care of their children because of AIDS medication that our government funds."

During his visit, Rev. Beckmann also noted that the United States does less than it should to support agriculture in Malawi and Mozambique.  "We aren't very responsive to local needs and priorities, because our aid programs are heavily earmarked here in Washington," he said.  "In Mozambique, USAID, PEPFAR, and the MCA are each doing their own thing.  Better coordination of these innovative agencies and programs would make them more effective, and deliver results greater than the sum of the parts."

Because of high grain prices and the global recession, almost a billion of the world's people are now hungry, according to Rev. Beckmann.  "Given our own economic problems, we need to make our foreign assistance as cost-effective as possible and focus more of the aid on reducing hunger and poverty."

Rev. Beckmann also urged Congress to pass the Global Food Security Act, saying it would reinvigorate world agricultural development and make U.S. emergency food assistance more efficient: "The Global Food Security Act calls for a much-needed integrated global food security strategy; I am grateful to Sens. Lugar and Casey for reintroducing this important bill." 

Among his recommendations, Rev. Beckmann said the U.S. should invest as much in agricultural development as in food aid, aim to purchase half of food aid locally, and focus nutrition programs on the most vulnerable groups, such as small children, their mothers, and people with HIV/AIDS.