Participants in the recent global conference on hunger organized by the World Bank concluded that hunger is a poverty issue, not a food supply issue. To eliminate hunger, many of the anti- poverty strategies the Bank has been recommending were endorsed, including a balanced development strategy which supports labor- intensive growth.

Overcoming Global Hunger- - A Conference on Actions to Reduce Hunger Worldwide, was held November 30- December 1, 1993, in Washington D.C., with widespread participation from anti- poverty groups including some 70 non- governmental organizations (NGOs). Ismail Serageldin, the Bank's Vice- President for Environmentally Sustainable Development, was the conference chairman.

World Bank President Lewis Preston stated that the Bank is willing to join other donors in a "consultative group" type of organization to mobilize financing for activities to address extreme poverty. The NGO participants agreed to work with the Bank on a substantive anti- poverty agenda.

"Hunger and malnutrition are the most devastating problems facing the world's poor, the Bank is determined to work forcefully with others to help these people, which is why we organized this conference," President Lewis Preston said in his opening remarks. The conference heard from an impressive array of speakers, including, Secretary General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros- Ghali; Congressman Tony Hall (Democrat- Ohio) whose 23- day fast last April led to the establishment of a Hunger Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives; Botswana's President Sir Ketumile Masire, winner of the Hunger Prize in 1989; IFAD's President Fawzi Hamad Al- Sultan; USAID Administrator J. Brian Atwood; Muhammad Yunus, President of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank; IDB Executive Vice President Nancy Birdsall; Harvard's Lamont University Professor, Amartya K. Sen; and Ismail Serageldin.

The Right To Food

Speaking as a leader of a non- governmental organization (NGO) committed to alleviating hunger, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, told an audience of more than 1,200 "We know that people suffering from starvation are more likely to erupt in civil war, and in a war- torn society, starvation is almost invariably prevalent. The afflictions feed on each other. In fact, we have found that peace, freedom, democracy, human rights [including the right to food], and the alleviation of human suffering are inseparable."

Carter went on to list several "generic problems" which must be overcome in solving the world's hunger problems. One item listed was an inadequate relationship between research emphases and practical needs in the developing world. He referred to Norman Borlaug, who worked 20 years at a CGIAR center, as believing that international agricultural research centers are currently concentrating "excessively on basic research and less on applied research and are therefore less effective than they were five to eight years ago".

Eradication Of Hunger Will Come From Research

Several documents were prepared for the meeting, including a paper produced by IFPRI staff members, Patrick Webb and Joachim von Braun, entitled, "Ending Hunger Soon: Concepts and Priorities." During the meeting President Preston announced that the Bank would support small self- help credit schemes to benefit the poorest of the poor and gave The Grameen Trust a $2 million grant.

Vice- President Serageldin in his closing summary of the conference emphasized the eradication of human hunger and poverty will come through effective research. He cautioned against the danger of becoming complacent, and argued for the need to continue long- term agricultural research.