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Journalism of Courage
In one of the first signs of effects of the ever-tightening US federal budget in the past two months, the Bush administration has reduced contributions to global food aid programmes aimed at helping millions of people climb out of poverty.
With a growing budget deficit and President Bush promising to reduce spending, the administration informed representatives of several charities of its inability to honour earlier promises adding it would only pay for food in emergency crises like that in Darfur, in western Sudan. The cutbacks, estimated by some charities at up to 100 million, come when the number of hungry in the world is rising for the first time in years and all food programmes are being stretched. As a result, Save The Children, Catholic Relief Services and other charities have suspended or eliminated programmes intended to help the poor feed themselves through improvements in farming, education and health.
For the other programs that have been cut back, he said, 8216;8216;We are going to look at a couple of different things, such as the importance of the programme and whether it is able to produce results.8217;8217; One administration official, involved in food aid, voiced concern that putting high priority on emergency help might be short-sighted. The best way to avoid famines is to help poor countries become self-sufficient with cash and food aid now, said the official, seeking anonymity. 8216;8216; 8212; NYT
