Winchester, IN                   Bread For the World / FOAM               
www.bread.org  updated: 27 July 2011
Bread for the World Group meets the last Wednesday of every month@ 12:00 Noon....all people are welcome to attend the simple meal and spend time writing letters concerning hunger issues before congress.)
 
 
2011 Offering of Letters:  Foreign Assistance Reform for Effectiveness and Efficiency
Congress in 2010 advanced legislation to reform US foreign assistance.  The Obama administration is now moving forward with reforms that emphasize development and poverty reduction, a transformed US development agency, accountability, and responsiveness to the priorities of people in recipient countries.  Bread for the World's 2011 Offering of Letters asks Congress to give these reforms the force and durability of bipartisan legislation on four fronts:  a stronger US government focus on reducing poverty; clearer accountability for how aid dollars are spent, and for their results; a transformed US development agency; and US aid that takes seriously the priorities of its recipients and addresses the needs and hopes of local people.
 
A Major Step Forward on Foreign Aid Reform - Washington, DC, July 21, 2011
         Late on July 20, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved two reform-focused amendments authored by Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) during the first day of the mark-up of the FY2012 Foreign Relations Authorization Act.  David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, thanked Reps. Poe, Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Berman (D-CA) for their bipartisan support of the amendments.  "As we are mired in partisan politics in so many areas, it is heartening to see members from both parties working together," wrote Beckmann.
         Beckmann added that the bipartisan passage of the Poe amendments creates positive momentum for greater congressional leadership on foreign assistance reform. "Both amendments are designed to complement and improve upon the best practices and reform efforts that are underway within the Administration," he said.  The amendments strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of US development aid by improving the accountability of foreign assistance programs through enhanced transparency and monitoring and evaluation.
            * The monitoring and evaluation amendment calls on the President to work with the leading development agencies to develop a clear and common set of guidelines to improve monitoring and evaluation programs for all U.S. foreign assistance programs.
            * The transparency amendment essentially codifies and expands USAID's new Foreign Assistance Dashboard Initiative by directing the President to establish a searchable website for the publication of critical program funding and performance data for all foreign assistance programs. 
 
UN Secretary General Pleads for Somali Assistance - July 22, 2011
         Ban Ki-moon today made an impassioned plea to the international community to mobilize resources to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia, where severe drought has plunged communities in the southern region of the country into famine.  He said that approximately $1.6 billion in aid will be required to save the lives of those at risk – mostly women and children.  Only half that amount has been pledged so far, and he asked for all to contribute to the cause, whether you are a regular donor or not, "to offer hope in the name of our common humanity".
         Ban stated further than UN agencies are meeting in Rome on Monday to coordinate the emergency response and raise funds for immediate relief.  In addition to food assistance, programs must be developed to deal with the vulnerabilities caused by the recurring droughts in East Africa.  In addition to food aid, drought-resistant seeds, irrigation, improved infrastructure and livestock programs are all badly needed.  More important than this, Ban said, is the need to end conflict in Somalia which compounds the effect of the drought.  "As long as there is conflict in Somalia, we cannot effectively fight famine.  More and more children will go hungry; more and more people will needlessly die. And this cycle of insecurity is growing dangerously wide."
         Mennonite Central Committee estimated in mid-July that up to 11 million people are at risk of severe hunger this summer in the Somalia/Ethiopia/Kenya region.  The UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that an average of 1,000 desperate people are arriving in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, every day seeking help after fleeing famine-stricken regions in the south.  Somalis hard hit by the severe food shortages in their country have also been arriving in large numbers in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. An estimated 100,000 refugees from Somalia have arrived in camps in Kenya's Dadaab area so far this year, while another 78,000 have gone into camps in the Ethiopia's Dollo Ado border area.
         At least 15 people died in a single day as a result of malnutrition and related diseases in one camp in Ethiopia. The UN's World Food Program has begun delivering emergency food aid, and the UN Children's Fund has pledged to step up its efforts to aid the most acutely malnourished.  According to the Director of UNICEF's supply division, the time to act is now. "If we are to save lives, we need to act now – to bring in massive quantities of medicines, vaccines, nutrition supplies into the region as quickly as we are able and then get them out to the children who need it most."
 
Reforming US Foreign Assistance Makes Sense    The crisis in the Horn of Africa, the 2011 drought across much of the USA's grain-producing region, and the high food commodity prices caused by shortages and the ongoing global recession all illustrate the urgency of reforming the US foreign assistance apparatus to eliminate waste, increase efficiency and transparency, and rescue or improve the maximum number possible of at-risk lives with the limited resources available.
 

Sample Letters
 
Sen. Richard Lugar                                     Sen. Dan Coats                                           Rep. Mike Pence
306 Hart Senate Office Bldg.                B40E Dirksen Senate Off. Bldg.                       1605 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC  20510                             Washington, DC  20510                             Washington, DC  20515
       202-224-4814                                             202-224-5623                                               202-225-3021
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov           senator_coats@coats.senate.gov                mike.pence@mail.house.gov
 
Sen. __________ , Rep. Pence,
 
In this week of chaos in Washington over the debt ceiling and deficit, I am writing to ask you to help the government use its money more wisely.  While Congress bickers and dithers over our wasteful ways, up to eleven million human beings in the Horn of Africa are at risk of death by starvation and hunger-related illness.  The suffering there, and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our aid to address that crisis, is every bit as urgent as our debt ceiling.
 
Please press Congress to help reduce global hunger and poverty by supporting reform of the 1961 US Foreign Assistance Act.  Administering foreign assistance through 12 departments, 25 agencies, and nearly 60 offices is unacceptably inefficient in a time of such vocal concern over government spending.  Despite our economic woes, it makes no sense to eliminate or reduce essential  funding for helping the least fortunate citizens of the world to survive.  We must instead make the effort to eliminate waste and increase efficiency in our aid framework so we can share even more generously with fellow humans in need.
 
Please inform me of how you will work with Congress and the President to pursue peace and security by providing US foreign aid with better coordination, efficiency, transparency, accountability, and dignity-promoting generosity.
 
                                                                                            Sincerely,
 

 
 
 
 
 
2011 Offering of Letters:  Foreign Assistance Reform for Effectiveness and Efficiency
Congress in 2010 advanced legislation to reform US foreign assistance.  The Obama administration is now moving forward with reforms that emphasize development and poverty reduction, a transformed US development agency, accountability, and responsiveness to the priorities of people in recipient countries.  Bread for the World's 2011 Offering of Letters will push to give these reforms the force and durability of bipartisan legislation on four fronts:  a stronger US government focus on reducing poverty; clearer accountability for how aid dollars are spent, and for their results; a transformed US development agency; and US aid that takes seriously the priorities of its recipients and addresses the needs and hopes of local people.
 
For Bread for the World members, advocacy for hungry and poor people is a matter of faith.  We are moved by God's grace in Jesus Christ to help our neighbors—whether they are next door or on the other side of the world.  We advocate for changes in the laws and systems that enable hunger and poverty to persist.
 
         The main driver of poverty reduction in the world is the hard work of poor people themselves.  Given the opportunity to improve their communities and provide a better life for their children, most will seize it.  We need to make sure US foreign aid reaches those who need it most, and that it supports their efforts to lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty.
 
         Over the last decade, BFW members have helped triple US funding for assistance programs that are focused on reducing hunger and poverty and promoting economic development in poor countries.  These programs do a lot of good.  Over that decade, the rate of chronically hungry people in developing countries has fallen from 20 percent to 16 percent.  More recently, Bread members have helped build momentum to reform US foreign assistance.  We have already achieved critical changes.  We have helped make international development—specifically the reduction of world hunger—a higher priority for the US government, which now is leading an international initiative called Feed the Future to strengthen agriculture and improve nutrition in poor countries. 
 
         Congress also has started drafting reform legislation, including a possible overhaul of portions of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the legal basis of our government's overseas development work.  BFW will continue to work in coalitions like the broad-based Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and other faith-based groups, and with both Republicans and Democrats, to generate bipartisan support for these reforms towards greater poverty reduction, clearer accountability, a more effective USAID, and priority on the needs of recipient countries and communities.
 
         Aid that is more effective really matters to poor countries.  Haiti is struggling to recover from long-standing poverty made worse by the 2010 earthquake.  The people of Liberia are emerging from two devastating civil wars that have left thousands deeply impoverished.  Problems like those cannot be overcome quickly, but more effective US assistance can make a big difference as Haitians and Liberians—and people in many other developing countries—increase their capacity and infrastructure so they can become self-sufficient and build a better future for themselves.  More effective US assistance can also help achieve a rapid reduction in malnutrition among children worldwide.  Recent studies demonstrate that the best way to reduce child deaths and disabilities from malnutrition is to focus on babies and pregnant women.  Just as replacing incandescent bulbs with more-efficient compact fluorescents or LEDs greatly reduces consumption and waste of electricity while still delivering excellent light, reforming US foreign assistance can eliminate waste and significantly increase the beneficial impact of taxpayers' aid dollars in this time of fiscal challenges.
 
Sample Letter
 
Sen. Richard Lugar                                     Sen. Dan Coats                                           Rep. Mike Pence
306 Hart Senate Office Bldg.                B40E Dirksen Senate Off. Bldg.                       1605 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC  20510                             Washington, DC  20510                             Washington, DC  20515
       202-224-4814                                             202-224-5623                                               202-225-3021

senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov           senator_coats@coats.senate.gov     mike.pence@mail.house.gov

 
Rep. Pence, Sen. ______, 
 
 I am writing to ask you to make my hard-earned tax dollars count by using them as efficiently as possible to help poor and hungry people, both in the US and abroad.  As my voice in the Congress, I ask you to support significant reform of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, not to cut US aid, but to make it more focused on reducing poverty, more accountable, and more sensitive to the needs and priorities of its recipients.
 
 In the past two weeks, our nation has spent $1 billion or more to establish a no-fly zone over Libya.  Going forward, it will cost $100 million or more per month to maintain it.  None of that feeds, heals, educates, or employs one Libyan.  We came up with that money in an instant in the name of militarily improving one foreign tragedy.  Surely we can find a fraction of that amount to spend on reforming our foreign assistance structure to improve its effectiveness in ways that will offer hope and a better future to poor, hungry people in dozens of developing countries.  If you want to make the world more secure, that's the way I want you to use my tax dollars towards that end.
 
                                                                                                             Sincerely,
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bread for the World's Petition to Congress  -  February 2011
 
Dear Honorable Members of Congress:
 
         The challenges before you as you work to complete the spending bill for the remainder of FY11 are indeed daunting. And we must address our fiscal imbalance, or everyone—particularly low-income families—will suffer. But hunger and poverty are not partisan issues, and your efforts should not cause further harm to the most vulnerable people here in the United States and around the globe.
         We have a moral obligation to help those in need, and your spending decisions can mean the difference between life and death.  We especially lift up these proposals because of the immediate and long-term costs to already struggling families:
 
U.S. Food Aid: The proposed 46 percent cut from last year's funding level would mean that 18 million fewer people will have food during emergencies and crises. This program also provides school children in developing countries with at least one meal, often their only meal that day.
 
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): The proposed 10 percent cut from last year's funding level would mean fewer low-income infants, young children, and pregnant and nursing mothers will receive food vouchers and nutrition education from WIC. Almost half of all infants in the United States, and a quarter of all children ages 1 to 4, participate in this program.
 
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): The proposed 66 percent cut would greatly affect 8.3 million low-income U.S. households who struggle to keep warm in harsh winters and cool in hot summers.
 
International Development Assistance: The proposed 30 percent cut would mean fewer small farmers all over the world will have the resources to become self-reliant and in turn contribute to greater political stability and prosperity at home and abroad. The World Bank reports that since June 2010, an additional 44 million people have been driven into poverty by soaring commodity prices.
 
         You face enormous pressures to cut spending and reduce the deficit. It will require tough choices and sacrifices. However, Proverbs 31:9 reminds us of our responsibility to "speak up, judge righteously, and champion the poor and the needy."   In this spirit, we pray that you fully fund these programs so that we do not hurt those who least can afford it.
 
Grace and peace.
 
 
 
On Sept. 30, 2009 Dave Miner, President of the Board of Bread for the World came to speak at the Winchester Chapter meeting during lunch.  Ron Ferguson is on the left. Joining the Winchester Chapter were 4 friends from Muncie (where there is a chapter) and 6 friends from Richmond.