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Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World
Bread
Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute, has been named to the steering committee
of Scaling Up Nutrition’s Civil Society Network. Scaling Up Nutrition is a global movement of 31
countries that have committed resources to improving nutrition among vulnerable groups.
Making Progress Against
International Hunger
For its international legislative agenda, Bread’s work has helped to build
support for more and better development assistance. This has been important in preventing an increase in hunger during the global food price crisis
and economic downturn in 2008. In
response to the crisis, Bread advocated
for increased funding for agricultural
development in poor countries, which
had been neglected in the last decade.
Bread for the World also worked with
partner organizations to ensure that maternal and child nutrition become key
components of U.S. global health, development, and food aid programs. Bread
has supported the work of the Scaling
Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and
Lateef now sits on the SUN Civil Society Steering Committee. Bread has also
convened hundreds of women of faith to
advocate for adequate nutrition for children and their mothers during the first
1,000 days, from conception to age 2.
U.S. leadership since 2009 helped
convince other countries to increase
their investments in food security, nu2 Bread | January-February 2013
trition, and agriculture. The U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative,
focused on 19 of the world’s poorest
countries, has been part of the effective
global response. Recent data suggests
that hunger did not rise as anticipated—
although progress has stalled at over
870 million worldwide, of which 852
million live in developing countries.
Given the dramatic decline in hunger from 23.2 percent in 1990 to 14.9
percent now, continued investments
in poverty-focused development assistance will help put the world on track
to end hunger within a generation.
In 2011, Bread members advocated
for a stronger U.S. government focus
on reducing poverty, clearer accountability for how U.S. aid dollars are
spent, a transformed U.S. development
agency, and U.S. aid that meets the
needs and wants of local people. Working with our partners in the Modernizing Foreign Aid Network (MFAN),
Bread advocated for a revamp of the
nation’s foreign assistance efforts.
Three key bills were introduced last
year: the Global Partnerships Act of
2012, a major rewrite of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act; the Foreign Aid
Transparency and Accountability Act
of 2012; and the Donald M. Payne International Food Assistance Improvement Act of 2012. .
The Payne bill was passed by the
House Foreign Affairs Committee and
awaits final action. As of press time,
the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act has been passed by
the Senate and is scheduled for a vote
in the House.
In addition, President Barack
Obama issued the historic Presidential
Policy Directive on Global Development in 20