For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 10, 2004
Ending Famine Fact Sheet
Fact Sheet: Ending Famine in the Horn of Africa
Presidential Action
President Bush and the other G-8 Leaders endorsed today a new
initiative to help prevent famine by improving worldwide emergency
assessment and response systems, raising agricultural productivity, and
helping 5 million chronically food insecure people in Ethiopia attain
food security by 2009.
The Challenge: Millions of people face hunger or food insecurity
in Eritrea, Somalia, the Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda. At least five
million Ethiopians are "chronically food insecure", i.e., unable at
some time in any year to secure an adequate supply of food for
survival.
U.S. Leadership: President Bush believes that famine is a
preventable tragedy and he is determined to do more. The United States
is the world's leader in food aid, providing more than $1.4 billion in
emergency aid and 56 percent of all contributions to the UN's World
Food Program in FY 2003, a year of unusually high emergency food aid
needs.
G-8 Action: President Bush led the G-8 in endorsing an initiative
on Ending the Cycle of Famine in the Horn of Africa, which commits the
G-8 to:
* Improve worldwide emergency assessment and response
systems;
* Support programs to raise agricultural productivity and
promote rural development in food insecure countries;
* Assist Ethiopia to attain food security for 5 million
people by 2009; and
* Work with other donors to meet fully the emergency
assistance needs in the Horn of Africa and other famine-prone regions.
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