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78 非洲需要更多援助以战胜饥荒
Conference Finds Africa Needs Increased Assistance to Fight Hunger
David Gollust
State Department
28 Jun 2001 00:08 UTC
A three-day conference on the problem of hunger in Africa has ended in Washington with appeals for increased aid to the continent, focused on rural agriculture. The meeting at the State Department included several African leaders and U.S. 1)delegates from government, the private sector and 2)charitable groups.
At the World Food Summit in 1996, leaders resolved to reduce hunger around the globe by half by the year 2015. But at the conference here of "The Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa" there was little 3)optimism that the goal can be met on the African continent - in large part because of the AIDS 4)epidemic.
In the keynote speech of the final session, the partnership's African co-chairman, President Alpha Konare of Mali, said there could be more than 400 million hungry people in Africa within a 5)decade, or twice as many as there were during the food summit five years ago.
Mr. Konare said it is 6)pointless to 7)cast blame for the 8)deterioration, but said what is needed is a "head-on" attack of the problem by foreign donor countries and the African states themselves. He said outside aid should focus on developing African agriculture but also opening markets to African goods and reducing the continent's debt burden.
Mr. Konare said African leaders should realize that the fight against hunger will require both political and economic reform, 9)eliminating corruption, respect for human and minority rights, and what he called "peace-seeking" policies to end African 10)conflicts.
There was a similar 11)appeal from the conference's U.S. co-chairman, former House International Affairs Committee chairman Lee Hamilton, now head of Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center.
He said open politics and economies are necessary 12)prerequisites for tackling African hunger and poverty. "African nations are the ones who must make the hard choices to reform their political and economic systems, steps that are essential if we are to achieve lasting progress," he said. "Without good governance, aid of any kind, of any amount, will be largely wasted. Second, we must promote broad-based economic growth strongly grounded in agricultural development as the best 13)vehicle to reduce hunger and poverty. Economic development - not emergency food aid - is the key to cutting hunger over the long term."
Mr. Hamilton said the United States should do more to help reduce African hunger and that actual U.S. aid to Africa is far less than what most Americans think it is.
He also said the many Americans are 14)unaware their country has important security interests in Africa. He added the United States is already "paying heavily" for the spill-over effects of African problems including refugee flows, environmental degradation and the drug trade.
As the conference was coming to a close, the State Department announced a new $12 million U.S. grant to the World Food Program for 15)refugees in nine African countries. It brought the overall U.S. 16)contribution to the United Nations agency this year to $424 million - nearly 60 per cent of its total 17)receipts.
Mali's President Konare is expected to raise African development issues again Thursday when he joins the leaders of Senegal and Ghana in a meeting with President Bush at the White House.
(1) delegate[5delI^Et]n.代表vt.委派...为代表
(2) charitable[5tFArItEb(E)l]adj.仁慈的, (为)慈善事业的,宽恕的
(3) optimism[5RptImIz(E)m]n.乐观, 乐观主义
(4) epidemic[epI5demIk]adj.流行的, 传染的, 流行性n.(风尚等的)流行, 流行病
(5) decade[5dekeId]n.十年, 十
(6) pointless[5pCIntlIs]adj.无意义的
(7) cast blame for 指责
(8) deterioration n.变坏, 退化, 堕落
(9) eliminate[I5lImIneIt]vt.排除, 消除v.除去
(10) conflict[5kRnflIkt]n.斗争, 冲突vi.抵触, 冲突
(11) appeal[E5pi:l]n.请求, 呼吁vi.求助, 诉请, 要求
(12) prerequisite[pri:5rekwIzIt]n.先决条件adj.首要必备的
(13) vehicle[5vi:Ik(E)l; (?@) 5vi:hIkl]n.交通工具,媒介物, 传达手段
(14) unaware[QnE5weE(r)]adj.不知道的, 没觉察到的
(15) refugee[refjJ:5dVi:; (?@) 5refjJdVi:]n.难民, 流亡者
(16) contribution[kRn5trIbju:t]n.捐献, 贡献, 投稿
(17) receipt[rI5si:t]n.收条, 收据, 收到v.收到
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