Despite the new priorities we face in battling terrorism, we must not forget the other important challenges our world confronts, including ending poverty and hunger in the world, which can breed unrest and social instability.

Food security is a prerequisite to sustainable, equitable economic development and indeed a critical factor for economic and social stability in every country. Food security simply means all people having access at all times to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a healthy and productive life. It depends on the availability of and access to food, and on proper food use.

Food security clearly is more than just food production, nutrition, or food aid. Alleviating hunger, a severe manifestation of poverty, depends in the long run on sustainable and broad-based economic growth and income generation. In many poor countries, these depend on a productive, competitive, and sustainable agricultural sector. To achieve these conditions, countries must invest in rural areas to strengthen agriculture, the food system, and infrastructure, and to restore and conserve critical natural resources for agricultural production. This requires both public and private investment -- domestic and foreign.

At present, the world is not on track to achieve the 1996 World Food Summit target of reducing the number of hungry people from 800 million to 400 million by 2015. In fact, the rate of reduction is less than half the required rate. Three-quarters of the world's poorest people live in rural areas, emphasizing that the challenge of feeding growing populations is really expanding economic activity in rural areas. In addition to past constraints to growth, HIV/AIDS now dramatically affects nutrition, food security, agricultural production, and rural societies in many countries and further undermines the ability of the world community to achieve hunger reduction goals. Sub-Saharan Africa is most affected because of these factors and is an obvious focus of food security efforts. South Asia, however, has the greatest absolute number of malnourished and undernourished people and also must be a focus of attention.

At the World Food Summit, participating nations, including the United States, committed to the goal set by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Government and civil society developed the 1999 U.S. Action Plan on Food Security as the U.S. strategy for addressing international and domestic hunger reduction goals.

In June 2002, the FAO will convene the World Food Summit: five years later for nations to review progress and recommit to the hunger reduction target. Working together we can break the crushing cycle of poverty and win the war on hunger.

STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION

Unfortunately, there is no convenient or simple solution to combating hunger and malnutrition. In the U.S. Action Plan, developed with input from government agencies, nonprofit and faith-based organizations, and private citizens, the United States identified several strategies to address this global problem. They include: expanding competitive agricultural production, especially through agricultural research and technology; providing ongoing social safety nets for the world's most vulnerable people, especially women and children; expanding trade and achieving a new round of global trade negotiations; making agricultural production environmentally sustainable; improving systems for assuring food safety; and continuing food aid to countries with emergency situations.

A more productive agriculture is necessary to fuel the economic growth required to alleviate poverty in food-insecure countries; for the most part, rural areas are the most food insecure. Agricultural research is key to developing and adopting crop varieties and for increasing crop and livestock yields so essential to helping reduce malnutrition and hunger. Moreover, dwindling options for land and water resources and increased population and environmental stresses make it imperative that we emphasize biotechnology, one of the very few new tools we have to address these constraints. Biotechnology also can improve the nutritional and other quality aspects of food products for the benefit of all consumers. The U.S. government is reinforcing this emphasis through additional support to international agricultural research.

Food security, of course, cannot be attained by just producing more food. Investment in agriculture must be complemented by social safety nets and programs that address hunger among the most vulnerable groups. For example, women are the backbone of food production and household nutrition and income in many developing countries, thus making gender aspects a key consideration in food security program planning and implementation. The United States expects its development partners to assure this focus on the role of women.

Often in the poorest countries, it is not the lack of food that causes hunger and malnutrition but the lack of access to it, a condition generated by a combination of complex factors. In addition to the poor being unable to purchase food, many agricultural and food products cannot flow between countries because of high tariffs or poor infrastructure and transportation systems. Farmers barely eking out a living cannot move beyond subsistence farming because poorly defined property rights preclude their use of the land as collateral for credit -- a critical need for small-scale farmers everywhere, especially women farmers. Many countries cannot sell their surplus food because their systems for ensuring the food's safety are inadequate. All of these problems point to the widespread need for general development of legal and regulatory systems, along with greater investment in infrastructure.

The poorest countries need open markets in which to sell their products. Trade can be a big booster of living standards, creating new opportunities throughout the developing world. Greater market access for agricultural products, elimination of export subsidies by developed countries, and science-based trade rules will enhance food security for all nations. But progress in achieving these goals is more critical and much more urgent for the poorer countries.

Food aid continues to be an important component of the international safety net for meeting specific food shortages in the lowest income countries that experience natural or conflict-related disruption of food supplies or simply cannot afford commercial food imports. Food aid is a unique resource for addressing hunger and nutrition problems, addressing emergency food needs, supporting development programs, and directly feeding vulnerable groups. The United States is continuing its efforts to better target and increase the effectiveness of its food aid programs, while continuing their fundamental humanitarian nature.

Safe food is essential for food security as well as physical health and economic productivity. Technical assistance for food safety helps strengthen national food regulatory systems, protects local consumers, and reduces barriers to the export and import of food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now offers such training in selected developing countries

U.S. ASSISTANCE TO LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES

The U.S. government operates a wide variety of programs and activities targeted to the agriculture and food security needs of low-income countries. These include:

* More attention to agriculture. The U.S. government has reversed the decline in foreign assistance funding for agriculture projects that began in the late 1980s among all donors, expanding funding to more than $300 million in fiscal year 2000.

* Renewed commitment to agriculture and food security in Africa. For example, the Africa Food Security Initiative has invested almost $150 million since 1998 in rural roads, agricultural technology, commodity networks, and girls' education to address policy, technology, and infrastructure constraints to enhancing food production and marketing. The United States is formulating an Agricultural Initiative to Cut Hunger in Africa to start in 2002.

* Agricultural research and biotechnology. In 2000, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contributed $39 million to international agricultural research centers. As part of this effort, $7 million will be provided for biotechnology and biosafety capacity-building in low-income countries. USAID also allocated $20 million to nine collaborative research support programs in commodities, livestock, sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, land access, and natural resources. These activities are carried out through partnerships between U.S. and host country institutions, such as universities, national agricultural research centers, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and communities. USDA also supports bilateral scientific and research exchanges as well as technical assistance in this area.

* Capacity-building activities for trade. The U.S. government committed more than $600 million to capacity-building activities for trade in developing countries and transitional economies for 1999 to 2001. For example, in recent years, the Africa Trade and Investment Policy program has funded more than 40 projects totaling $57 million to improve the trade and investment environment in 11 reform-oriented countries and three regions in Africa.

* Market access. The United States has virtually no duties on most agricultural products from least developed countries, and it helps these countries build the export capacity to take advantage of this market access. Market access has been expanded for developing countries through the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Andean Trade Preference Act, and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act. Moreover, technical assistance is being provided to help countries benefit from these laws, such as meeting technical standards for the market.

* Debt relief. Through fiscal year 2002, Congress has appropriated a total of $768 million for debt relief linked to poverty reduction investments for the world's poorest countries through the multilateral Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. For these poor countries, debt relief is an important element in support of economic growth and poverty reduction.

* School feeding. Beginning in 2001, the Global Food for Education multilateral school feeding pilot program is using $300 million for U.S. commodities and related costs to improve nutrition, enhance the quality of basic education, and improve enrollment, attendance, and performance for 9 million school children, especially girls. Some 49 programs in 38 countries are envisioned through mid-2002 for this pilot program.

* Food aid. The United States annually provides more than half of total global food assistance, most of it as grants. In fiscal year 2001, U.S. international food assistance totaled over 6 million tons, including more than 4 million provided by USDA. A large portion of this assistance was distributed through private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and the World Food Program of the United Nations.

* Food safety. The United States provides technical assistance to countries participating in international standard-setting bodies; developing national science-based measures for animal and plant health and food safety; improving capacity in food pathogen control, pest and disease management, surveillance, risk assessments, and inspections; improving infrastructure for processing plants and laboratories; developing optimal manufacturing practices; and conducting research.

* HIV/AIDS. The United States is the largest bilateral donor of HIV/AIDS assistance, providing about half of all international HIV/AIDS funding. Total bilateral international assistance for HIV/AIDS prevention in fiscal year 2001 was nearly $466 million. Since 1986, through the U.S. Agency for International Development alone, the U.S. government has dedicated over $1,600 million for the prevention and mitigation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the developing world. The Bush administration has committed $200 million for a new Global Health Trust Fund for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, $480 million in additional overall funding for international HIV/AIDS prevention and control efforts, and $2,500 million for research, including on vaccines. The private Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to the new global fund, in addition to more than $300 million already donated. U.S. pharmaceutical companies also have donated or offered AIDS drugs at reduced cost, in addition to providing millions of dollars for programs.

* Private sector contributions. Increasingly, such organizations as PVOs, foundations, corporations, colleges, and universities, are contributing to foreign assistance. Of the $50,000 million in net total resources from the United States to developing countries and multilateral organizations in 1999, $36,000 million came from private capital and grants from NGOs. In 2000, the $2,200 million of U.S. government funding to PVOs generated an additional $9,000 million from private sources for development and humanitarian activities. PVOs often implement U.S. foreign assistance programs.

Prior to the tragic events of September 11, President George W. Bush said: "We're a wealthy nation with responsibilities to help others." That is why we take the commitments we made at the 1996 World Food Summit so seriously.

At the 31st Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in November 2001, the United States reaffirmed its commitment to help end world hunger and to walking alongside any country prepared to travel the path of good governance and open trade for peace and prosperity. By ending world hunger, we will all benefit from greater world peace and security. This is more critical today than ever before.