April 14, 2011 www.interaction.

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NGOs urge leaders to keep food security pledges

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2011—With food prices at record levels, financial leaders meeting in
Washington this week must urge their governments to follow through on pledges they made two years
ago to improve food security.

At the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009, world leaders pledged to spend $22 billion over three years
to improve food security and create sustainable solutions to ease the suffering of an estimated one
billion hungry worldwide. To put this in the most basic terms, about one in seven people worldwide is
hungry.

“The current spike in food prices has made it all the more urgent for leaders to follow through on their
promises to deal with this food crisis head-on. It is not enough to make pledges at international
summits,” said Samuel A. Worthington, the president and CEO of InterAction, the largest alliance of
U.S.-based international NGOs doing relief and humanitarian work abroad.

The world’s financial leaders are gathering in Washington this week for the spring meetings of the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Spiraling food prices are on the agenda.

“There needs to be long-term investment in agriculture, with a particular focus on women who are the
world’s primary food producers but are often denied much-needed credit,” said Worthington, who is on a
panel on Thursday at the World Bank to discuss the problem of rising food problems.

“Only through greater investment and empowering farmers can sustainable solutions be found to
chronic hunger and malnutrition rates. Food should not be a luxury for so many of the world’s poor
people,” he added.

Last week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick highlighted the importance of civil society in shaping
development efforts. InterAction hopes international leaders will follow his example and allow active
participation by NGOs in forming agriculture and other food security policies.

NGOs value their role in the World Bank’s Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a
mechanism that helps address underfunding of agriculture and other food security programs.

“Civil society representation on the GAFSP is a real step forward, though more must be done to ensure
that local civil society participation is there too. Local expertise would strengthen this program,” said
Worthington.

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InterAction is the largest alliance of U.S.-based nongovernmental international organizations with more than 190
members. Our members operate in every developing country, working with local communities to overcome poverty
and suffering by helping to improve their quality of life. Visit www.interaction.org

InterAction | 1400 16th St. NW, Suite 210, Washington D.C. 20036 | 202.667.8227 | ia@interaction.org