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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gates puts new focus on African hunger

Karen Deyoung Washington Post

WASHINGTON – The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s richest charity, joined with the Rockefeller Foundation on Tuesday to launch a development initiative for sub-Saharan Africa that they said would revolutionize food production and reduce hunger and poverty for tens of millions of people.

Modeled on the Rockefeller-pioneered “green revolution” that transformed farming methods and staved off widespread famine in much of the developing world nearly a half-century ago, the initiative coincides with a new round of Western concern about the long-intractable problems of the poorest continent.

Home to 16 of the 18 most undernourished countries, Africa is the only part of the world where food production has decreased in recent years. At the same time, political upheaval and conflict there are seen as fertile ground for extremists. Widespread famine in Africa has spurred recurring outbursts of high-profile relief efforts over the years, including United Nations programs and celebrity fundraising concerts, such as Live Aid in the 1980s and Live 8 last year.

Sponsors of the new “Alliance for a Green Revolution” said Tuesday they are looking for a more systematic, long-term solution to African hunger.

The alliance is the first Gates venture into poverty and development after years of focusing largely on global health and education. The effort follows a doubling of the foundation’s $30 billion endowment, drawn largely from Gates’ Microsoft Corp. fortune, with investment guru Warren Buffett donating an additional $31 billion this year. Gates has said that he will step down from direct management of Microsoft in 2008 to work full time on foundation activities.

“We’ve been looking into the causes of extreme poverty and how we might make a contribution to reducing that,” Bill Gates said during a conference call with journalists Tuesday. “If we can work on health and poverty issues concurrently, there is a lot that can be done to improve the quality of life. … Today no country of any size has been able to sustain a transition out of poverty without substantially raising productivity in the agricultural sector. It can have a transformative impact.”

Melinda Gates said that she and her husband had studied development problems for three years before deciding to move beyond their health initiatives.

The Africa program will begin with a relatively small Gates contribution of $100 million over five years, plus $50 million from Rockefeller, to fund development of more robust disease- and drought-resistant seeds for primary African foodstuffs, enhanced distribution networks for seed and fertilizer, and university-level training for African crop scientists.

The new partners are still exploring how to make sure their initial steps do not overwhelm the continent’s capacity to absorb assistance, Rockefeller President Judith Rodin said. While future investments are likely to “scale up significantly,” she said, “all of us intend to be mindful of really measuring outcomes and learning as we go and then providing the necessary resources.”

Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development, said the mere fact that the world’s biggest philanthropist is joining with the pre-eminent foundation working in agricultural development is “going to make a difference. It’s a real shot in the arm.”