[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 102 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 102

      Relating to efforts to reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 4, 2001

     Mr. Leach (for himself and Mr. Payne) submitted the following 
     concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
      Relating to efforts to reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This concurrent resolution may be cited as the ``Hunger to Harvest 
Resolution: A Decade of Concern for Africa''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Despite progress in recent years, sub-Saharan Africa 
        enters the new millennium with many of the world's poorest 
        countries and is the one area of the world where hunger is both 
        pervasive and increasing.
            (2) 33 of the world's 41 poorest debtor countries are in 
        sub-Saharan Africa, and approximately 291,000,000 individuals 
        in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly half of sub-Saharan Africa's 
        total population, currently live in extreme poverty on less 
        than $1 a day.
            (3) One in three people in sub-Saharan Africa is 
        chronically undernourished, and the number of chronically 
        undernourished people in the region has doubled in the past 
        three decades. One child out of every seven dies before his or 
        her fifth birthday, and one-half of these deaths are due to 
        malnutrition.
            (4) Sub-Saharan Africa is the region in the world most 
        affected by global infectious disease, accounting for one-half 
        of infectious disease-caused deaths worldwide, according to a 
        January 2000 report by the Central Intelligence Agency. Deaths 
        from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, and several 
        other diseases in sub-Saharan Africa exceed those in all other 
        regions.
            (5) Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70 percent of adults and 
        80 percent of children living with the HIV virus, and to three-
        quarters of the people worldwide who have died of AIDS since 
        the epidemic began.
            (6) According to the World Bank, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has 
        erased many of the development gains of the past generation in 
        sub-Saharan Africa and now threatens to undermine economic and 
        social prospects for the next generation, with life expectancy 
        in parts of sub-Saharan Africa having already decreased on 
        average by 10-20 years as a result of AIDS.
            (7) Despite these development challenges, the number of 
        sub-Saharan African countries that are moving toward open 
        economies and more accountable government has increased, and 
        these countries are together beginning to establish local 
        solutions to the problems of the region.
            (8) To make lasting improvements in the lives of their 
        people, sub-Saharan African governments need to be supported as 
        they take meaningful steps to reduce conflict, advance economic 
        reform, stimulate growth, improve governance, and make 
        essential investments in people and infrastructure.
            (9) Notwithstanding sub-Saharan Africa's enormous 
        development challenges, United States companies hold 
        approximately $15,000,000,000 in investments in sub-Saharan 
        Africa, greater than United States investments in either the 
        Middle East or Eastern Europe, and total United States trade 
        with sub-Saharan Africa currently exceeds that with all of the 
        independent states of the former Soviet Union, including the 
        Russian Federation. This economic relationship could be put at 
        risk without greater attention to growth and poverty-focused 
        development in sub-Saharan Africa.
            (10) Bread for the World Institute calculates that the goal 
        of reducing world hunger in one-half not later than 2015 is 
        achievable through an increase of $4,000,000,000 in annual 
        funding for effective, poverty-focused development from all 
        donors. If the United States were to shoulder one-fourth of the 
        aid burden--approximately $1,000,000,000 a year--the obligation 
        of America would amount to a penny per day per citizen.
            (11) According to a recent nationwide poll by the Program 
        on International Policy Attitudes, 83 percent of Americans 
        think that the United States should be willing to commit to a 
joint plan for cutting world hunger by one-half by the year 2015.
            (12) Sustainable development and poverty reduction in sub-
        Saharan Africa cannot occur without additional public and 
        private sector investment.
            (13) Failure to effectively address sub-Saharan Africa's 
        crisis of development could result in heightened instability on 
        the continent, greater political conflict, and increased 
        poverty, increasing the prospect of humanitarian intervention 
        and potentially threatening a wide range of United States 
        interests.
            (14) Efforts to reduce hunger and poverty should begin in 
        sub-Saharan Africa, where conditions are both widespread and 
        increasing. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
        happiness should not be denied to people simply because they 
        live on an impoverished continent.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) a moral people cannot tolerate the existence of hunger, 
        poverty, and disease in any part of the world;
            (2) the United States should declare A Decade of Concern 
        for Africa and commit to increased levels of effective, 
        poverty-focused development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa 
        until significant progress is made toward reversing current 
        levels of hunger and poverty;
            (3) the President should work with the heads of other 
        advanced industrial countries and sub-Saharan African 
        countries, and with United States and sub-Sharan African 
        private voluntary organizations and other civic organizations, 
        to increase development assistance for sub-Saharan Africa and 
        ensure that such assistance is used effectively to reduce 
        hunger and poverty;
            (4) Congress should undertake a multi-year commitment with 
        other donors to provide the resources necessary to cut hunger 
        by one-half in sub-Saharan Africa, with funding directed 
        toward--
                    (A) health, including efforts to prevent, treat, 
                and control HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and 
                promote maternal health and child survival;
                    (B) education, with an emphasis on equal access to 
                learning for girls and women;
                    (C) agriculture, food systems, infrastructure and 
                rural development;
                    (D) micro-finance development; and
                    (E) bilateral and multilateral debt relief that 
                enables sub-Saharan African countries to invest in 
                poverty-focused development, and strengthens and 
                expands democratic participation, free markets, trade, 
                and investment;
            (5) such funding should support both bilateral and 
        multilateral poverty-focused development efforts in sub-Saharan 
        Africa, including efforts by nongovernmental and private 
        voluntary organizations, including faith-based institutions; 
        and
            (6) the Administrator of the United States Agency for 
        International Development, in consultation with the heads of 
        other appropriate agencies, should annually prepare and submit 
        to Congress a report on the progress achieved in the 
        implementation of paragraphs (3) and (4).
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