WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the U.S. has a “moral obligation” to help lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, announcing $3 billion in private sector pledges to help feed Africa’s poor.
Obama was urging the world’s biggest economies to make good on their own financial promises. He outlined the food security initiative in a speech Friday kicking off four days of international summits.
The president championed a food security initiative in 2009 that led to $22 billion in pledges from G-8 leaders and other nations.
Obama says a variety of nations, corporations and non-governmental organizations need to “step up.” He says “government cannot and should not do this alone. It has to be all hands on deck.”
The plan aims to spur agriculture growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty in 10 years.
