Ambassador William Garvelink recently joined USAID as Deputy Coordinator for Development for the Feed the Future initiative.
Q. What is Feed the Future?
Garvelink: Feed the Future is the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative. Through Feed the Future, we will contribute to raising incomes, improving nutrition, and enhancing food security – seeking to impact millions of lives worldwide.
Q. Why the emphasis on food security — why now?
Garvelink: Right now, we have a historic opportunity. Global leaders at the 2009 G8 Summit made a commitment to act with scale and urgency. President Obama’s $3.5 billion pledge helped to leverage more than $18.5 billion from other donors in support of a common approach to achieve sustainable food
security. Food security is not just about food, but rather the security and prosperity of countries and regions. We will not make real progress on our collective development agenda without addressing global hunger and undernutrition.
Q. How will Feed the Future work?
Garvelink: As part of a global effort in coordination with our development partners, we plan to invest in country-led, evidence-based strategies and sustained partnerships to reduce hunger and poverty. We will support countries in developing their own investment plans for food security. Already we are seeing countries like Rwanda, Bangladesh, and Ghana host multi-stakeholder consultation meetings that review and align resources towards their plans. This week USAID Administrator Shah will publicly release the Feed the Future Guide, which will provide detailed principles and goals of our implementation strategy. In the coming months, we will continue our work with countries and on diversifying the funding base to reflect growing engagement in foreign assistance.
