Nations represented at the G8 Summit of the world's major industrial powers have promised to raise U.S. $20 billion to promote sustainable agricultural development in developing countries.
A statement issued at the end of the summit, endorsed by the G8 as well as countries including Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa, said countries represented had made commitments "towards a goal of mobilizing $20 billion over three years."
The money would be used both to implement "a coordinated, comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development" and to provide emergency food aid.
Indications from the summit were that United States President Barack Obama had played a major role in raising the target to $20 billion - reports before and during the summit suggested the figure would be $15 billion.
Western campaigners for food security welcomed the commitment but expressed some scepticism.
Rock star Bono, a founder of the ONE campaign, said Obama had provided "a stimulus package for the agricultural sector that is smart and innovative." But fellow musician Bob Geldof questioned whether Italy, which hosted the summit, would live up to its promises. He said Italian Prime Minister Silvio "has only delivered three percent of his commitment to Africa since 2005... When will he act?"
The Obama administration presented the G8 initiative as not simply a monetary pledge, "but also a commitment to reform the way the international community approaches food security, which is equally if not more important."
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At a news conference after the summit, President Obama said the purpose of aid should be "to create the conditions where it's no longer needed - to help people become self-sufficient..." To that end, he said, he had proposed "a new approach... a coordinated effort to support comprehensive plans created by the countries [in need] themselves...
"There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient when it comes to food," he added. "It has sufficient arable land. What's lacking is the right seeds, the right irrigation, but also the kinds of institutional mechanisms that ensure that a farmer is going to be able to grow crops, get them to market, get a fair price."
But he underlined that "the flip side is... that countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the world that are suffering from extreme poverty have an obligation to use the assistance that's available in a way that is transparent, accountable, and that builds on rule of law and other institutional reforms that will allow long-term improvement."
Archbishop Njongo Ndungane, a former South African church leader who now leads the African Monitor, a group which tracks how effectively aid is used in Africa, commended what he called the G8's "shift from food aid to long-term investments in farming..."
He added: "For Africa, agriculture provides tremendous potential to bring about equitable growth, improved food production and poverty alleviation. This is vital particularly due to the fact that over 200 million people across the continent go to bed hungry each night; tens of millions of children are too hungry to concentrate in class or to go to school at all and that hunger turns serious diseases into fatal illnesses."
