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- 08/09/09: Remarks by Alonzo L. Fulgham, Acting Administrator, USAID, at the Second Annual Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress
- 07/30/09: Testimony by Earl Gast, Acting Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Africa, before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations - "Responding to Humanitarian Needs, Supporting Peace, and Implementing Development Priorities in Sudan"
- 07/29/09: Statement for the Record of Jon C. Brause, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, before the Senate Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
- 07/29/09: Statement for the Record Submitted by Margot B. Ellis, Acting Assistant Administrator for Asia,
before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment - "Ushering in Change: A New Era for U.S. Regional Policy in the Pacific"
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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by Kenneth Hackett
President and CEO, Catholic Relief Services
Delivering Hope: American PVOs Celebrate 50 Years of Food for Peace
50th Anniversary of Food for Peace
Washington, D.C.
July 21, 2004
Intro
Good morning and thank you. I'm pleased to be here this morning, and I'm honored to be able to speak on behalf of the American PVO community and those we serve.
For half a century, PVOs have provided the final link in a chain that begins on America's farms and stretches around the world to villages in places as far flung as Peru, India and Ethiopia. This chain is a lifeline for millions-a gift from the American people that provides relief for the most basic of needs in times of crisis. Beyond emergencies, though, Food for Peace offers a chance for a better future through school feeding programs; it offers a road out of the past through community infrastructure projects; and it provides the promise of hope for the next generation through mother-child feeding programs.
We are proud to be the face of America for those in need; indeed, this is a role that has taken on added significance in recent years. The good intentions and generosity of our nation are best understood through actions, and the relationships we have built bear witness to the essential human component of our work.
What's at Stake
And yet, we still face tremendous challenges. As inspiring as our history is, the number of people who will go to bed hungry tonight; the number who live without access to clean water; and the number who will die this year of HIV/AIDS all provide a sobering counterpoint to our celebration.
Poverty and hunger are burdens that cross time and span generations, leaving children stuck in the same cycle as their parents and grandparents before them. Pregnant woman who do not get proper nutrition or prenatal care are almost certain to have children who suffer from low-birth weight and the attendant physical and cognitive difficulties that appear later on. Struggling families will be less likely to send their kids to school if the children can help support the family by working. And this cuts off long-term prospects to meet very real short-term needs. It's not difficult to see how poverty perpetuates itself.
But it doesn't have to be this way. And the success that we've had in the past 50 years only makes the case for what is possible more compelling. Investment in long-term development works.
Burkina Faso's Minister of Education, Mathieu Ouedraogo, has noted that he and most of his colleagues benefited from school feeding programs that enabled them to get an education and the nutrition they needed. And for every government official, there are thousands of doctors, teachers and farmers who can tell similar stories of the impact Food for Peace had on their lives.
Results from food-for-work programs are equally encouraging. A CRS program in India that involves rural women organizing around community needs has helped women not only feel empowered but to act on this newfound self-confidence. Last year more than 1,800 of the women who participated in the food-for-work programs were elected to political office in their village councils. They are now serving as a voice for their communities at the local government level. This type of achievement speaks to the best of our country's ideals and the power of food beyond simple sustenance.
Hope
Food for Peace is about bringing hope to people in need. And hope presupposes a reason to believe in the future. This is not a hope borne of wishful thinking but of a confidence in the ability of communities to help direct their own development. Our work is built on decades of trust and partnership, helping to develop in other countries the kind of grassroots civic participation that de Tocqueville found so fascinating here.
Our commitment to working with local groups, and to working together, brings out the best in us. The kind of innovation that is spurred by collaboration ensures that we are constantly seeking ways to better serve our beneficiaries. The C-SAFE initiative, with its "development-relief" approach to the food security crisis in southern Africa, is a prime example of this. In partnership with USAID, we are not only meeting nutritional needs of the most vulnerable-a critical task in an area hard-hit by HIV/AIDS, where we're using the approach that "food is the first medicine"-but we are also helping to promote livelihoods and giving communities the tools they need for future food security.
Into the New Millennium
The 50 years we celebrate today give us reason to be proud. Our work makes a difference every day in the lives of millions. And it is because it makes such a difference that we cannot rest. We are responsible for making the program better and for ultimately putting ourselves out of work, as we've done in places like South Korea and Eastern Europe.
We must develop a new compact among all of us who participate in this wonderful program. I would like to see the face of the farmer/producers, of USDA and USAID staff, the elevator operators, the large and small grain companies, the freight forwarder, the ports and the PVOs participating publicly together in the countries where PL-480 is being used with the other resources that help the food to have a greater, longer-lasting impact. Let's show the face of a generous America-an America concerned about poverty, HIV/AIDS, human development and education-to those we work with and those who watch us. We must work to ensure:
- That American PVOs redouble our efforts on the Hill, with the Administration, on Main Street, at church and in living rooms around this nation to educate our fellow citizens of our awesome responsibility to our neighbors around the world.
- That politics never defines how or where food is distributed
- That short-term impact never supplants long-term commitment.
- That we trust field staff to identify the needs and the means to meet them.
- That we recommit to the poorest children among us reach adulthood healthy, educated and ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century. And this cannot just be a rhetorical commitment; it needs to be funded.
Let me close in highlighting one of our colleagues who passed away suddenly last month. Pat Carey, who many of you had the privilege to know, spent his life pursuing these ideals. He believed passionately in the power of food aid, and he spoke eloquently not long ago about the very personal way it had touched his life. We remember him today as a colleague and as a friend. He served with CARE in India, in Haiti, in Bangladesh, and in the Philippines where I first met him. He believed in people and their indomitable spirit which he felt could be released for positive change. Charlie MacCormack of Save the Children summarized our community's feelings for Pat when he said "In a field blessed with dedicated people, Pat brought unparalleled dedication, compassion, and eloquence to the mission of overcoming world hunger by using food aid."
I would to ask Peter Bell to come forward to accept on behalf of the Collation for Food Aid and Food for Peace a memento for Pat Carey.
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