VOA标准英语2012--G8 Leaders Called on to Address Hunger, Poverty

 

G8 Leaders Called on to Address Hunger, Poverty

Humanitarian¹ groups say they want G8 leaders to make food security and poverty top priorities at their upcoming summit. The leaders gather later this month at Camp David in Maryland.

In 2009, at the L’Aquila Summit in Italy, G8 leaders pledged $22 billion over three years to improve agriculture and bolster² food security. They were responding to the food crisis that began in 2008, when high prices and shortages triggered riots in a number of countries.The summit also resulted in the U-S led L’Aquila Food Security Initiative. It was backed by 26 countries and 14 organizations.

However, some leading humanitarian groups say despite the pledge and follow-up efforts, much more needs to be done to end hunger.

Neil Watkins of ActionAid said the L’Aquila commitment is about to expire.

“The G8 will face a choice on whether to sustain and expand that commitment to fighting hunger around the world or rather to let it expire. For anti-poverty advocates, there is a key question that is facing the G8 and President Obama. And that is: Will President Obama and other G8 leaders step up and agree to a bold new deal to fight hunger and malnutrition³ or will this just be another summit in a long line of meetings with warm words, but few actions?”

Renewed commitment?

Watkins added that leaders are expected to launch a new food security initiative with greater involvement by the private sector⁴.

“The G8’s focus on food security and hunger is vital. In the past year, we’ve seen a famine in the Horn of Africa, continuing to see rising food prices across the globe, and most recently in the Sahel region of West Africa around 13.4 million people are facing hunger. It’s the second crisis in that region in two years and over a million children in that region are at risk of severe malnutrition,” he said.

Gawain Kripke of Oxfam America praised President Obama’s food security efforts since 2009.

“President Obama has majored on agriculture and food security as part of his foreign aid agenda. And he successfully cajoled other G8 leaders and many others to take that agenda up three years ago. So our expectation is that President Obama will do the same here in Camp David. So we’ve been calling for President Obama to keep that momentum⁵ up – to keep pushing for bigger and better and more ambitious goals and more ambitious resource commitments. That’s to say funding,” he said.

Kripke said there are about a billion people around the world who don’t have enough to eat.

“The trends in front of us are only going to get worse with population growth, competition for food and climate change,” he said.

Could have been better

Tom Hart of the humanitarian group ONE, is critical of what’s been done since the L’Aquila Summit. He describes the results as lackluster.

“Donors so far have distributed, disbursed⁶, about 22 percent of the $22 billion that they pledged. We expect that number – that 22 percent delivery – to go up over the course of the next few months as pledges are indeed turned into disbursements on the ground. But again it’s been a challenge,” he said.

The 2009 G8 Summit also led to the creation of a trust fund called the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program or GAFSP. Hart said only 7 of the 40 signatories to the L’Aquila Initiative have pledged funding to GAFSP.

Michael Klosson of Save the Children wants G8 leaders to make a major commitment to ending malnutrition affecting millions of children.

“They’re at risk of being stunted⁷. That may sound like you just lose a few inches or something like that, but in fact it permanently⁸ impairs⁹ your physical and mental abilities and it is also a big drain on the growth of nations and their economies. And G8 leaders can’t claim true progress if economies are growing but children are not,” he said.

The G8 Camp David Summit will be held May 18th and 19th. President Obama has invited leaders from Ethiopia, Ghana, Benin and Tanzania to take part in summit food security talks.

1 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

2 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

3 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

4 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

5 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

6 disbursed   

v.支出，付出( disburse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the 2000—2008 school year, $426.5 million was disbursed to 349085 students. 2000至2008学年，共有349085名学生获发津贴，总额达4.265亿元。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bank has disbursed over $350m for the project. 银行已经为这个项目支付了超过3.5亿美元。 来自辞典例句

7 stunted   

adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的

参考例句：

• the stunted lives of children deprived of education 未受教育的孩子所过的局限生活
• But the landed oligarchy had stunted the country's democratic development for generations. 但是好几代以来土地寡头的统治阻碍了这个国家民主的发展。

8 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

9 impairs   

v.损害，削弱( impair的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Smoking impairs our health. 吸烟会损害我们的健康。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Almost anything that impairs liver function can cause hepatitis. 任何有损于肝功能的因素，几乎都会引起肝炎。 来自辞典例句