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“THE IMPORTANCE OF A GLOBAL SCHOOL LUNCH AND GLOBAL WIC PROGRAM” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1389-E1392 on July 27, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE IMPORTANCE OF A GLOBAL SCHOOL LUNCH AND GLOBAL WIC PROGRAM
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HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Thursday, July 27, 2000
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I was very excited to read the July 23, 2000 statement by President Clinton at the G-8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan, announcing a $300 million initial start-up program in support of a universal school and pre-school feeding program for the over 300 million hungry children of the world. On July 27th, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing on this issue and invited former Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, the two chief proponents of this initiative, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, Senator Richard Durbin, myself, and several others to testify.
This is a remarkable initiative to promote education and reduce hunger among children world wide. I would like to enter into the Record the President's statement describing this initiative, as well as the testimony of Ambassador George McGovern and my own testimony before the Senate Agriculture Commitee.
THE CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION: BUILDING A STRONGER GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SUPPORT FOR BASIC EDUCATION AND
CHILDHOOD NUTRITION--JULY 23, 2000
Today, President Clinton announced new Initiatives to expand access to basic education and improve childhood development in poor counties. Part of the Okinawa Summit's unprecedented emphasis on international development, these measures include:
(1) A new $300 million U.S. Department of Agriculture international school nutrition pilot program to improve student enrollment, attendance, and performance in poor countries. (2) Endorsement by the G-8 of key international
``Education for All'' goals, including the principle that no country with a strong national action plan to achieve universal access to primary education by 2015 should be permitted to fail for lack of resources. (3) A now commitment by the World Bank to double lending for basic education in poor countries--an estimated additional $1 billion per year,
(4) An FY 2001 Administration budget request to increase funding for international basic education assistance by 50%
($55 million) targeted to areas where structural weaknesses in educational systems contribute to the prevalence of abusive child labor.
Better access to basic education can be a catalyst for poverty reduction and broader participation in the benefits of global economic integration. Literacy is fundamental not only to economic opportunity in today's increasingly knowledge-intensive economy but also to maternal and infant health, prevention and treatment of HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases, elimination of abusive child labor, improved agricultural productivity, sustainable population growth and environmental conditions, and expanded democratic participation and respect for human rights.
(1) The U.S. will launch a $300 million school feeding pilot program working through the UN World Food Program in partnership with private voluntary organizations. Building on ideas promoted by Ambassador George McGovern and former Senator Robert Dole and explored at the World Food Program
(WFP), the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) would purchase surplus agricultural commodities and donate them for use in school feeding and pre-school nutrition programs in poor countries with strong action plans to expand access to and improve the quality of basic education.
For the first year of the program, the USG would spend $300 million for commodities, international transportation, and other costs under the current CCC authorities, feeding as many as 9 million schoolchildren and pre-schoolers.
The program would be initiated working through the WFP in partnership with Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs), the U.S. share of which could grow over time depending upon participation by other donors and eligibility by developing countries.
Selection criteria would be based on need and include a commitment and contribution of resources by the host government, technical feasibility, good progress toward a strong national action plan to achieve the Dakar Education, for All goals, and a commitment by the host govemment to assume responsibility for operating the program within a reasonable time frame where feasible.
A portion of the commodities could be sold to provide cash resources for incountry program management, funding any associated programs (e.g. feeding equipment purchases and local-commodity purchases, etc.), In-country product storing, processing, handling and transportation, and purchasing the appropriate foods for the local program.
Funding would come from USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation under the surplus removal authority of the CCC Charter Act, and Section 416(b) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, which provides for overseas donations of commodities in CCC's inventory to carry out assistance programs in developing countries and friendly countries. The last several years have seen record food surpluses in the U.S., with corresponding record donations of food overseas. USDA analysts project continued surpluses over the next few years.
(2) The G-8 has strongly endorsed Education for All goals and called for increased bilateral, multilateral, and private donor support for country action plans. At the initiation of the U.S., the G-8 has agreed to endorse the goals of a recently concluded international conference on access to basic education. Held in April 2000 in Dakar, Senegal, the World Education Forum gathered over 1,000 leaders from 145 countries to increase the world community's commitment to basic education in poor countries by:
Ensuring that no country with a strong national action plan to expand access to and improve the quality of basic education should be permitted to fail to implement its plan for lack of resources;
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality;
Achieving a 50% per cent improvement in level of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women;
EliminatIng gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005; and
Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education.
(3) In connection with the Summit and at the suggestion of the U.S., World Bank President James Wolfensohn has pledged that the Bank will increase education lending by 50% and devote the increase to basic education in support of the Dakar Framework--a $1 billion increase or doubling of the Bank's lending for this purpose. This step could galvanize action on the part of the developing countries and other public and private donors to develop a deeper partnership in support of educating the world's youth.
(4) The G-8 action builds on the President's FY 2001 budget initiative to increase by 50% ($55 million) US assistance to strengthen educational systems in areas of developing countries, targeted to areas where abusive child labor is prevalent. The International Labor Organization has estimated that 250 million children work worldwide. A lack of educational alternatives exacerbates this problem. The Administration initiative would complement direct efforts to reduce abusive child labor such as those by
The Okinawa Summit's focus on basic education in developing countries builds on one of the primary achievement of last year's G-7/G-8 Summit, the Cologne Debt Initiative, which will triple the scale of debt relief available to countries undertaking economic reforms and committing to devote the resources freed up by lower foreign debt repayments to the education and health of their people. The President has requested $435 million in appropriations for this years participation in the Cologne Debt Initiative, $810 million including FY 2002 and 2003.
The intemational community has set a goal of achieving universal access to primary education by 2015; however, half of children in developing countries do not attend school and 880 million adults remain illiterate. An estimated 120 million children in developing countries do not attend any school at all, and an additional 150 million children drop out of school before completing the four years of schooling needed to develop sustainable literacy and numeracy skills.
Girls represent over 60% and perhaps as many as two-thirds of the children who are not in school.
Where 20% of women or less read and write, those women have an average of six children each. By contrast, in countries in which female literacy has reached 80% or more, this figure drops to fewer than three children each.
Each year of maternal education reduces childhood mortality by eight percent, de-worming medicine.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of children (42 million) are out of school. In South Asia, 26% (46 million) are not enrolled in primary education. Of those children who do enroll, 33% never finish in Sub-Saharan Africa, 41% in South Asia, and 26% in Latin America.
The United Nations World Food Program estimates that 300 million children in developing countries are chronically hungry. Many of these children are among the nearly 120 million who do not attend school. Others are enrolled in school but underperform or drop out due in part to hunger or malnourishment.
A 1996 World Bank study concluded that when children suffer from hunger or poor nutrition and health, their weakened condition increases their susceptibility to disease, reduces their learning capacity, forces them to end their school careers prematurely, or keeps them out of school altogether.
An estimated 210 million children suffer from iron deficiency anemia, 85 million are at higher risk for acute respiratory disease and other infections because of vitamin A deficiency, and 60 million live with iodine deficiency disorders. Each condition adversely affects cognitive development, physical development, and motivation, yet each is susceptible to cost effective treatment because the body requires only minute quantities of the nutrients in question.
By helping to address these problems, school feeding and pre-school child nutrition programs have been shown to have a significant positive impact on rates of student enrollment, attendance and performance.
The Presidents international school feeding pilot program and the G-8's support for basic education in poor countries are part of the G-8's unprecedented emphasis on development. One of the principal objectives of the Okinawa Summit has been to strengthen the partnership of developed and developing countries, international institutions, the private sector, and civil society in support of global poverty alleviation. The Summit will create a framework for significantly increased bilateral, multilateral, and private sector assistance to poor countries with effective policies in three interrelated areas: infectious diseases, basic education, and information technology. The goal is to mobilize a more comprehensive response by the international community in response to developing countries that exert leadership at home on these issues. No issue is more fundamental to human progress that basic education:
Primary education is the single most important factor in accounting for diffierenoes in growth rates between East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa because it leads to greater achievement of secondary education, according to the World Bank.
An education helps people understand health risks, including AIDS, and preventative steps and demand quality treatment.
Education opportunities are also critical to eliminating abusive child labor. Around the world, tens of millions of young children in their formative years work under hazardous conditions, including toxic and carcinogenic substances in manufacturing, dangerous conditions in mines and on sea fishing platforms, and backbreaking physical labor. Some children labor in bondage, are sold into prostitution, or are indentured to manufacturers, working against debts for wages so low that they will never be repaid.
TESTIMONY OF GEORGE McGOVERN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE AGENCIES ON FOOD
AND AGRICULTURE, ROME, ITALY--JULY 27, 2000
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, I'm pleased to be associated once again with this important committee. During eighteen years as a Senator from South Dakota, I served every day as a member of this Committee: That was one of the deep satisfactions of my life. I also enjoyed my service on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Joint Economic Committee and my Chairmanship of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. But Agriculture was my bread and butter committee.
This morning I'm especially pleased to be accompanied by my friend and longtime Senate colleague, Bob Dole. As you know, Bob and I represent opposing parties. But we fonned a bipartisan coalition in the Senate on matters relating to food and agriculture. That coalition reformed the field of nutrition and virtually put an end to hunger in America. We reformed and expanded food stamps for the poor; we improved and expanded the school lunch and breakfast programs; we launched the WIC program for pregnant and nursing low-income women and their infants. In the 1980's and 1990's there has been some slippage in the coverage of these excellent programs and that needs to be corrected. It is embarrassing that in this richest of all nations we still have an estimated 31 million Americans who do not have enough to eat.
But today I want to describe a new vision for you. It is a vision that would commit the United Nations, including the U.S., to providing a nutritious meal every day for every child in the world.
There are now 300 million hungry school age children in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Most of them do not have a school lunch or breakfast. One hundred and thirty million of them do not attend school and are condemned to a life of illiteracy. Most of those not in school are girls because of the favoritism toward boys and discrimination against girls.
How can we draw these children into the classroom? The most effective attraction anyone has yet devised to bring youngsters into the schools and keep them there is a good school lunch program. The American school lunch program is the envy of the world. At the recent convention in St. Louis of the American School Food Service Association there were visitors from half a dozen foreign countries, including Japan, who were there to find out how they should erect school lunch programs.
By actual test results, a school lunch program will double school attendance; it will also dramatically improve the learning process and academic achievement. Children can't learn on an empty stomach. Nutrition is the precondition of education.
Nearly 40 years ago when the late President Kennedy brought me into the White House as Director of Food for Peace--a bipartisan program under P.L. 480 launched in the Eisenhower Administration--I received a telephone call from the Dean of the University of Georgia. He said, ``Mr. McGovern, I'm calling to tell you that the federal school lunch program has done more to stimulate the social and economic development of the south than any other single program. It has,'' he said,
``brought our youngsters into the schools, improved their learning capability, made them stronger, faster and healthier athletes, and more stable and effective citizens.''
I believe the Georgia Dean was right then, and based on what he told me so many years ago, I know that he would support a daily school lunch for every child across the world.
If we could achieve the goal of reaching 300 million hungry children with one good meal every day, that would transform life on this planet. Dollar for dollar it is the best investment we can make in creating a healthier, better educated and more effective global citizenry.
One enormous benefit from such an effort is that it would help mightily in breaking down the barriers to the education of girls. Third World parents will send both girls and boys to school if lunches are provided. In six countries where studies have been conducted, it was revealed that illiterate girls who enter into marriage at 11, 12 or 13 years of age have an average of 6 children. Girls who have been schooled have an average of 2.9 children; they marry later and are better able to nurture and educate their children.
One significant benefit of an international school lunch program is that it would raise the income of American farmers and those in other countries that have farm surpluses. Every member of this Committee knows that nearly every farm crop is now in surplus. This depresses farm markets and farm income. But if the Secretary of Agriculture--Dan Glickman, a great Secretary--used his authority in the market he can buy everything from California and Florida oranges to Kansas and Indiana wheat, Iowa corn, Montana, Texas and North and South Dakota cattle and hogs, Wisconsin and New York milk and cheese, and North and South Carolina and Georgia peanuts.
I'm pleased that President Clinton has endorsed this concept. In a White House meeting a month ago he told me:
``George, this is a grand idea. I want us to push it.'' I cite Secretary Glickman and Undersecretary Gus Schumacher as my witnesses.
The President proposed $300 million for the first year--largely in the form of surplus farm commodities. If other U.N. countries will consider that $300 million as a 25% share with the other three-fourths coming from the rest of the world for a total of $1.2 billion, that would not be a bad start.
I'd like to yield now to Bob Dole for some comments and then perhaps the Committee will wish to question us.
Governor George Bush has described himself as a
``compassionate conservative.'' The most compassionate conservative I know is Bob Dole. He was terribly wounded in World War II. I suspect partly because of that he has a tender heart for veterans. But beyond this, wherever there are hungry poor people, or undernourished children, or farmers in trouble, Bob Dole is always there.
The late Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached a sermon on the New Testament verse: ``Be ye wise as serpents and gentle as doves.'' Translated into the modern vernacular, Dr. King said this means: ``Be ye tough-minded and tender-hearted.''
That's Bob Dole.
Testimony of U.S. Representative James P. McGovern--July 27, 2000
THE IMPORTANCE OF A GLOBAL SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAM
I want to thank the Chairman, Senator Lugar, and Ranking Member, Senator Harkin, for the opportunity to appear before your Committee this morning. Your years of service and leadership both on agriculture issues and on foreign aid and humanitarian issues are admired and appreciated by your colleagues and, I might add, the people of Massachusetts. By holding the first hearing to explore the importance of a universal or global school feeding program, once again this Committee demonstrates that leadership.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, I'm happy to report a bipartisan movement is growing in support of this initiative. Congressman Tony Hall, Congresswomen Jo Ann Emerson and Marcy Kaptur and I recently sent a bipartisan letter to President Clinton signed by 70 Members of Congress, urging him to take leadership within the international community on this proposal. I am attaching a copy of that letter to my testimony and ask that it be part of the Record of this hearing.
I would also like to enter into the Record as part of my testimony a letter in support of this initiative by the National Farmers Union. In their letter, NFU states: ``The benefits to those less fortunate than ourselves will be profound, while our own investment will ultimately be returned many times over. The international nutrition assistance program is morally, politically and economically correct for this nation and all others who seek to improve mankind.''
As Senators George McGovern, Bob Dole and Richard Durbin have just testified, the proposal we are discussing today is very simple: to initiate a multilateral effort that would provide one modest, nutritious meal to the estimated 300 million hungry children of the world. I do not wish to repeat their testimony, but there are points I would like to underscore.
Mr. Chairman, I believe the world moves on simple ideas.
This simple idea is also a big idea, made more compelling in its potential to move us closer to achieving many of our most important foreign policy goals:
reducing hunger among children;
increasing school attendance in developing countries;
strengthening the education infrastructure in developing countries;
increasing the number of girls attending school in developing countries;
reducing child labor; and
increasing education opportunities for children left orphaned by war, natural disaster and disease, especially HIV/AIDS.
Over the next ten to twenty years, achieving these goals will significantly affect the overall economic development of the countries that participate in and benefit from this initiative. Children who do not suffer from hunger do better in school--and education is the key to economic prosperity. The better educated a nation's people, the more its population stabilizes or decreases, which, in turn, decreases pressures on food and the environment.
Our own prosperity is clearly linked to the economic well-being of the nations of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. As their economies grow stronger, so do markets for U.S.-made products. The generation of children we help save today from hunger and who go to school will become the leaders--and the consumers--of their countries tomorrow.
This simple idea, Mr. Chairman, might prove to be the catalyst to a modern-day Marshall Plan for economic development in developing countries: A coordinated international effort to create self-sustaining school feeding programs and to enhance primary education throughout the developing world. Our farmers, our non-profit development organizations, and our foreign assistance programs could help make this a reality.
On the other hand, it could also fail.
It could fail, Mr. Chairman, if we in Congress fail to provide sufficient funding for this initiative; if we fail to provide a long-term commitment of at least ten years to this initiative; and if we fail to integrate this initiative with our other domestic and foreign policy priorities.
In its July 23rd announcement, the Clinton Administration has made available $300 million in food commodities to initiate a global school feeding program. This is an admirable beginning for a global program estimated at $3 billion annually when it is 100 percent in place, with the U.S. share approximately $755 million per year.
To ensure the success of this initiative, we will need to commit ourselves to long-term, secure funding for this and related programs.
First, new legislation to authorize this program, and the necessary annual appropriations to carry it out, must at a minimum provide for the total U.S. share. These funds would not only provide for the purchase of agriculture commodities, but also for the processing, packaging and transportation of these commodities; for the increased agency personnel to implement and monitor expanded U.S. education projects in developing countries; and for an increased number of contracts with U.S.-based non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) implementing these feeding and education programs in target countries.
A significant portion of this assistance will go to our farming community for the purchase of their products, and that's as it should be. Quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, I would rather pay our farmers to produce than watch them destroy their crops or pay them not to produce at all.
Second, the United States must lead and encourage other nations to participate and match our contributions both to the food and the education components of this project.
Third, we will need to increase funding for development assistance to strengthen and expand education in developing countries. One of the key reasons for supporting school feeding programs is to attract more children to attend school. If that happens, then the schools will need cooking centers, cooking utensils and cooks. Within a year or two, the increase in student population will require more classrooms. Those classrooms will need teachers and supplies. Additional development assistance, delivered primarily through NGOs, will be needed to successfully implement both the food and the education components of this proposal.
Fourth, we will need to secure greater funding for and recommit ourselves to debt relief and to programs that support and stimulate local agriculture and food production in these countries--two important priorities of our foreign assistance programs. Revenues that developing countries must now use to service their debt could instead be invested in education, health care and development. Successful school feeding programs also rely on the purchase and use of local food products, which are in harmony with local diet and cultural preferences. If the ultimate goal is to make these food and education programs self-sustaining, the promotion of local agricultural production and national investment in education are essential.
Fifth, our commitment to this effort must be long term. Too often initiatives are announced with great fanfare and then fade away with little notice given. Many development organizations currently active in the field with ``food for education'' programs are skeptical of this proposal. Many governments of developing countries share that skepticism. They have heard it before. They have seen programs announced, begun and then ended as funding abruptly or gradually ended. Our commitment to both the food and education components of this initiative must cover at least a decade.
Sixth, we do not need to re-invent the wheel to implement this program, or at least the U.S. participation in this multilateral effort. We have a long and successful history of working with our farming community to provide food aid. We have successful partnerships with NGOs already engaged in nutrition, education and community development projects abroad. We also have established relations with international hunger and education agencies, including the Food Aid Convention, the World Food Program, UNICEF and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO).
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I believe we must also take a good long look at our own needs, and at the same time we contribute to reducing hunger abroad, we must make a commitment to ending hunger here at home. In a time of such prosperity, it is unacceptable that we still have so many hungry people in America. None of our seniors should be on a waiting list to receive Meals-on-Wheels. No child in America should go to bed hungry night after night. No family should go hungry because they don't know where the next meal will come from. No pregnant woman, no nursing mother, no infant nor toddler should go hungry in America. We have the ability to fund existing programs so these needs are met.
If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would also like to add one more comment. As first proposed, this initiative also had a universal WIC component. The United States is already involved in several nutrition and health programs for mothers and infants. I was very pleased to see in the President's announcement that it contained a pre-school component. I hope that we might also expand our assistance in this area and reach out to our international partners to increase their aid as well. We all know how important those early years of development are in a child's life. I fully support the school feeding and education initiative we are discussing this morning. But if a child has been malnourished or starved during the first years of their life, much of their potential has already been damaged and is in need of repair. Surely the best strategy would include health, immunization and nutrition programs targeted at children three years and younger.
I believe we can--and we must--eliminate hunger here at home and reduce hunger among children around the world.
I believe we can--and we must--expand our efforts to bring the children of the world into the classroom.
I hope you and your Committee will lead the way.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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