Speech to
INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT GOVERNING COUNCIL
TWENTY-FOURTH SESSION REPORT
ROME, 20-22 FEBRUARY 2001
(representatives of Treasury Departments of 170 nations and UN staff)
312. Mr HOEHN (Observer for Bread for the World), speaking at the invitation of the Chairperson on behalf of the NGOs, said that his organization was not involved in relief and development work but was an advocacy group which lobbied the United States Government and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to pursue policies that helped hungry and poor people.
A member of the Popular Coalition, it had recently had one of its annual reports published as a book entitled A Program to End Hunger, which argued that governments must do their part alongside humanitarian aid organizations. In addition to setting out the costs involved, the book advocated livelihood policies, social investment strategies and empowerment strategies, pointing out that for the first time in human history, the world had the knowledge and the resources to end widespread hunger and abject poverty. The claim that funds were scarce was untrue; it was simply a question of priorities and political will.
As a result of the hope and media interest generated in the United States by that realization, an alliance to end hunger by 2015 was now starting to coalesce. A further report shortly due for publication, entitled Foreign Aid to End Hunger, contained a proposal that the United States Government should appropriate an additional USD 1 billion in poverty-focused aid for Africa, to which end Bread for the World would mobilize thousands of people to lobby the United States Congress.
313. As an advocate, he wished to challenge the industrial and rich countries to continue their programme of poverty-focused debt relief to HIPCs and to seek additional foreign assistance funds as well as funds for IFAD, which listened to poor people and responded with strategies that worked. He also issued a challenge to the developing countries to use their debt relief funds effectively for poverty and gender-focused policies and to support citizen participation, participatory processes and the emergence of NGOs as mediating institutions between people and governments. Empowerment was the key to ensuring that people were able to make the best use of the assets provided to them by global institutions. https://webapps.ifad.org/members/gc/24/docs/GC-Report.pdf
INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT GOVERNING COUNCIL
TWENTY-FOURTH SESSION REPORT
ROME, 20-22 FEBRUARY 2001
(representatives of Treasury Departments of 170 nations and UN staff)
312. Mr HOEHN (Observer for Bread for the World), speaking at the invitation of the Chairperson on behalf of the NGOs, said that his organization was not involved in relief and development work but was an advocacy group which lobbied the United States Government and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to pursue policies that helped hungry and poor people.
A member of the Popular Coalition, it had recently had one of its annual reports published as a book entitled A Program to End Hunger, which argued that governments must do their part alongside humanitarian aid organizations. In addition to setting out the costs involved, the book advocated livelihood policies, social investment strategies and empowerment strategies, pointing out that for the first time in human history, the world had the knowledge and the resources to end widespread hunger and abject poverty. The claim that funds were scarce was untrue; it was simply a question of priorities and political will.
As a result of the hope and media interest generated in the United States by that realization, an alliance to end hunger by 2015 was now starting to coalesce. A further report shortly due for publication, entitled Foreign Aid to End Hunger, contained a proposal that the United States Government should appropriate an additional USD 1 billion in poverty-focused aid for Africa, to which end Bread for the World would mobilize thousands of people to lobby the United States Congress.
313. As an advocate, he wished to challenge the industrial and rich countries to continue their programme of poverty-focused debt relief to HIPCs and to seek additional foreign assistance funds as well as funds for IFAD, which listened to poor people and responded with strategies that worked. He also issued a challenge to the developing countries to use their debt relief funds effectively for poverty and gender-focused policies and to support citizen participation, participatory processes and the emergence of NGOs as mediating institutions between people and governments. Empowerment was the key to ensuring that people were able to make the best use of the assets provided to them by global institutions. https://webapps.ifad.org/members/gc/24/docs/GC-Report.pdf