Our Purpose

The mission of the Alliance for Global Food Security is to address hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity through the effective and accountable use of funds, food aid and other resources.  The Alliance works to assure that food security-related policies, including food aid, emergency response, agriculture development and nutrition, address the realities that Alliance members experience firsthand in the field and are not just theoretical constructs.  The Alliance provides information and raises awareness about gaps in current U.S. program approaches and recommends improvements in policies, legislation and administrative procedures to improve the effectiveness of our nation's efforts to address the global food and hunger crisis.  Food security is negatively affected by a wide range of issues, including poor agricultural productivity; high unemployment; low and unpredictable incomes; remoteness of farm communities; susceptibility to natural disasters, civil unrest and instability; wide discrepancies between the well-off and the poor; chronic disease; and lack of basic health, education, water and sanitation services. Well-planned and well-executed agriculture, nutrition, and food aid programs address these underlying causes of hunger. The integration of all three of these types of programs in the field can provide an even more powerful and lasting impact.

The world’s efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015 is far from reach. The number of people suffering from chronic hunger increased from 1996 to 2004 from under 800 million to 842 million. With the escalating food and fuel prices of 2008, the number increased even more, to 950 million. Besides these unmet chronic needs, international appeals for emergency food aid are constantly under-funded. The Alliance is most grateful that in 2008, the U.S. Congress reauthorized food aid programs and provided greater funding to help these vulnerable populations. We will continue to support full funding for food aid programs, both for emergencies and to address chronic hunger. However, while food aid is a critical component of an international food security strategy, it alone cannot resolve the sad and complex problem of hunger.

Therefore, the Alliance is calling on the U.S. Government to make global food security one of the pillars of its foreign aid program and asking the President to assign a Coordinator at the White House to kick-start the process of developing a global food security strategy through consultations with relevant government agencies and non-governmental organizations. In addition, the Alliance is seeking greater funding for agriculture, nutrition and management of food crises -- three basic components of a food security strategy that are currently under-funded by the United States.

This comprehensive approach is sorely needed, but its success will hinge on whether it is truly comprehensive, fully engages communities where the need is greatest, and incorporates the knowledge and skills of private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and cooperatives that organize and mobilize such communities.

MEMBERS: Regular Members are non-profit organizations that conduct food security programs in partnership with local communities and institutions in developing countries, using food aid and other resources as part of their efforts to alleviate hunger, to improve nutrition, to build local capacity, and to foster agricultural, economic and human development. Affiliate Members are non-profit organizations that support the objectives of the Alliance.