About the Author: Jonathan Shrier serves as Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security.

World Food Day is a reminder and call to action for the international community to strengthen efforts to end world hunger and malnutrition.

Today, nearly one billion people suffer from chronic hunger, which means that they do not get enough food to satisfy their body’s basic nutritional needs.

Feed the Future is the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative and works with partner countries to support their own agriculture development objectives to increase agricultural productivity and improve nutrition, which can help reduce poverty and hunger. Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries, where most people’s livelihoods rely directly on agriculture, and women in the developing world make up to forty-three percent of the agriculture…more »

About the Author: Jonathan Shrier serves as Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security.

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton co-hosted an event with President Joyce Banda of Malawi, to highlight both the progress made in the last three years under Feed the Future and the contributions of civil society organizations to advance our food security goals.

The highlight of the event was an extraordinary commitment by civil society organizations.

As Secretary Clinton said, “Today, I am pleased to announce a new commitment by civil society groups…InterAction, an alliance of 198 U.S.-based organizations, is pledging more than one billion dollars of private, non-government funds over the next three years to… more »

About the Author: Tjada McKenna serves as Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future.

A week ago, against the backdrop of the Olympics, I witnessed history. I was there not for the Games, but for the Global Hunger Event, which was co-hosted by U.K. Prime Minister Cameron and Brazil Vice President Temer. The event brought civil society and private sector partners together with leaders from across the globe — and even a few Olympic heroes including incomparable Mo Farah — to commit to championing for change against global hunger.

At the top of the list of priorities that emerged: Making significant gains against undernutrition before the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Just as is true for Olympians to be at their best, we know that… more »

About the Author: Tjada McKenna serves as Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future.

You may have noticed a lot of increased talk about “food security” lately, particularly in the international development realm. There’s good reason for that.

A family experiences food security when it lives without hunger or even fear of hunger. In essence, it means that people have enough food to live happy, healthy lives. It’s a right I’m sure we all wish were accessible to every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Yet global hunger and chronic malnutrition remain two of the greatest development challenges today. Nearly 20 percent of all people in the world live on less than $1.25 a day, and almost one billion suffer from chronic hunger. Compounding this problem is the fact that, by 2050, the global population is expected to grow to more than nine billion people, requiring up to a 70 percent increase in agricultural production to feed us all. Given increasingly… more »

About the Author: Tjada McKenna serves as Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future, and Jonathan Shrier serves as Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security and Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy for Feed the Future.

In Haiti, farmers are increasing their incomes and conserving the environment by improving their production of plantains.

In Guatemala, smallholder farmers — many of them women — are benefiting from increased access to loans, markets, training, and technology to advance food… more »

About the Author: Dina Esposito serves as the Director of the Office of Food for Peace at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

This week, urgently needed food — 33,700 tons of sorghum from American farmers — will depart the United States for West Africa, as a part of the U.S. government’s response to the drought in the Sahel.

Due to poor harvests, high food prices, and a number of conflicts in the region, a dire humanitarian situation is looming for chronically vulnerable populations across the Sahel region of western Africa.

The food we are shipping this week should arrive by late April, just four to five weeks from now. USAID’s speedy contribution complements efforts of the UN World Food Program and other agencies to procure food for the hungry regionally. Because markets in the Sahel are currently stretched to meet the demand for food, internationally sourced assistance is vital to ensure that food prices don’t rise even higher. With 7 to 12 million people in need of assistance,… more »

About the Author: Paul Weisenfeld serves as Assistant to the Administrator, USAID Bureau of Food Security.

For weeks now, my teenage daughter and her friends have been buzzing about the release of the new film The Hunger Games. I asked her recently about the trilogy — she’d already read the books — and I was struck by how much the premise relates to the very heart of what we are trying to address at USAID and through Feed the Future. Among other themes, the book touches on the fundamental right everyone should have: access to food.

As a father, nothing is more important to me than ensuring my daughter has a happy life. Sure, this includes her ability to hang out with friends at the movies (after her homework is done, of course). But more importantly, it means she’s healthy enough to go to school and work toward opportunities for a bright future. Kids all over the world deserve the… more »

About the Author: Nancy Lindborg serves as Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Due to erratic rainfall and failed harvests, high food prices, and rising conflict, more than seven million people across the Sahel region of western Africa are at risk of plunging into crisis when the lean season begins this spring.

We know this as a result of our investments into early warning systems that monitor rainfall, harvests, market prices, climatic conditions and nutritional status.

As a result, on February 15, 2012, I attended an unprecedented event in with Rome that brought together assembled leaders from the United Nations agencies, European Union, and USAID, as well as representatives of affected governments and non-governmental organization.

It was a heartening and remarkable convergence on the need to mobilize for early integrated action in response to the early warnings in the Sahel, with an emphasis on a smart, targeted response… more »

About the Author: Jonathan Shrier serves as Special Representative for Global Food Security (Acting).

Food security representatives from around the world are gathering here at the Department of State today to finish a two-day meeting of the signatories of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI). In 2009 at the G-8 Summit, global leaders, including President Obama, endorsed the L’Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security, agreeing to “to act with the scale and urgency needed to achieve sustainable global food security.”

This marked a turning point for international efforts to achieve food security worldwide. Leaders committed to a take a comprehensive approach to ensure food security, coordinate effectively, support country-owned processes and plans, engage multilateral… more »

Media Note