The Washington Proclamation on Cutting Hunger and Poverty in Africa

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"Partnership must be more than a word. It must be a behavior." – West African Proverb

In partnership, we can cut hunger in Africa. Cutting hunger will transform Africa.

Over the past 18 months, a broad coalition of activists, technical experts, business people, scholars, private voluntary organizations, and political leaders from across Africa and the United States have met to craft a new approach to cutting hunger and poverty on the continent. The Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa met in Washington on June 25 and 26 to review and debate the strategic framework and action plan that grew out of those efforts.

The economic and political environment for a sustained reduction in hunger and poverty in Africa is more favorable today than at any time in the past 40 years. The information revolution, new biological technologies, the end of the Cold War, and widespread political and economic reform in Africa offer hope for much more rapid progress than in the past. As Malian President Alpha Oumar Konaré has noted, "African leaders realize that economic and political reforms leading to democratization, decentralization, market economies, the fight against corruption, human and minority rights, and especially committed efforts to build peace are crucial instruments in the fight against hunger." We must capitalize on these opportunities.

Given the challenges and opportunities facing Africa, the Partnership urges the United States and Africa to join together in cutting hunger in Africa. We recognize that we will all benefit from the resulting economic development, environmental conservation, increased political stability and global security.

Global efforts to cut hunger and poverty in Africa are grossly inadequate: 186 million Africans are still malnourished, and this number grows every day. Two thirds of Africa's population lives in rural areas. Nearly half of all sub-Saharan Africans, most of them rural residents, live on less than $1 a day, with per capita incomes lower today than three decades ago. Hunger and poverty contribute heavily to other critical development problems, including HIV/AIDS, poor health, political instability, and environmental degradation. Because hunger in Africa stems from deep poverty, we declare that hunger must be addressed through long-term, broad-based, poverty-focused development. Yet despite these facts, U.S. bilateral assistance to African agriculture has fallen by two-thirds over the past 12 years. Other industrial countries have followed suit. Their aid to African agriculture has fallen by half, while World Bank funding plummeted by three-fourths. Yet, agriculture is the backbone of African economies and societies.

Producing and delivering food at lower-cost to urban and rural consumers is the broadest possible assault on poverty. Farm families have more to eat. Poor consumers, most of whose income goes to food, now have more money in their pockets. And by putting more money in the pockets of farmers, processors, and traders, increased agricultural productivity stimulates demand for a broad array of domestically produced goods, creating jobs for millions. Such broad-based growth sustains development initiatives aimed at improving nutrition, health (including the fight against HIV/AIDS), protecting the environment, strengthening education, fostering microenterprises, and creating new opportunities for women. The United States, through USAID, has recently underscored the development of agriculture and food systems—and the ensuing economic growth—as fundamental to reducing hunger and poverty in Africa.

In view of these facts and based on the review of our strategic framework and action plan, we, The Partnership, call on:

• The United States to take a more prominent leadership role in efforts to combat hunger and poverty in Africa;
• The U.S. Administration, working together with African leaders, to direct its efforts toward gaining international recognition of the strategic importance of rural-led economic growth as a vehicle to reduce poverty and hunger;
• The U.S. Administration and Congress to develop long-term financing plan aimed at doubling overall development assistance to Africa over the next five years, with a substantial increase in the 2003 budget, an important part focused on programs in agriculture and rural development. These programs should encompass full partnership with the private sector and with non-governmental organizations, cooperatives, and local associations, guarantors of sustained economic growth;
• African leaders to make rural-led economic growth a strategic priority in country and regional development plans;
• African leaders to generate domestic financing, both public and private, for initiatives to accelerate rural-based economic growth, and to develop transparent and credible systems to account for domestic and international resources spent.

We call on the United States and Africa to forge a broad-based development partnership to reduce hunger and poverty, combat HIV/AIDS, strengthen governance, increase trade and speed debt relief. We urge this Partnership to engage the next Group of Eight meeting in creating a Global Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty in Africa.

We, the conference participants, declare that we will transform our current effort into a new organization, The Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, to coordinate the efforts to translate this proclamation into genuine progress for the poor and the hungry in Africa. This Partnership welcomes participants from all countries of the world committed to creating a better future for Africa's children.

On June 25-27, 2001, participants from African, U.S., and international organizations met in Washington to review and debate the draft Strategic Framework and Action Plan of the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa. The Partnership, an independent effort formed by U.S. and African public and private sector institutions and international humanitarian organizations, is co-chaired by His Excellency Alpha Oumar Konaré, President of the Republic of Mali; Michigan State University President Peter McPherson; Senator Robert Dole, and the Honorable Lee Hamilton. The meetings took place at ACDI/VOCA on June 25, the American Management Association on June 26 and the Department of State on June 27, in the presence of the co-chairs and of his Excellency President John Kufuor of Ghana, the Prime Ministers of Uganda and Mozambique, the special representative of the President of Nigeria; the Executive Secretary of CILSS, the African Diplomatic Corps based in Washington, USAID Director Andrew Natsios, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner III, and hundreds of other participants from Africa, the United States, and other countries.

Executive Committee

M. Peter McPherson, Co-chair
President, Michigan State University

Alpha Oumar Konaré, Co-chair
President, Republic of Mali

Senator Robert Dole, Co-chair
Special Counsel, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand

Lee Hamilton, Co-chair
Director, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

David Beckmann
President, Bread for the World

Mary Chambliss
Deputy Administrator, Export Credits, Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA

Imani Countess
Outreach Coordinator, Shared Interest

William B. DeLauder
President, Delaware State University

Stephen Hayes
President, Corporate Council on Africa

Joseph Kennedy
Co-Founder, Africare

George Rupp
President, Columbia University

Emmy Simmons
Director, Economic Growth and Agricultural Development, Bureau for Global Programs, US Agency for International Development

Ambassador Edith Ssempala
Embassy of Uganda

Bob Stallman
President, American Farm Bureau Federation