Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the UN World Food Program, and Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture, are available to comment on the U.S. and international food security initiatives, which are expected to be discussed at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh and announced formally at the UN General Assembly meeting this week.
President Obama announced the U.S. food security initiative at the G-20 meeting in April 2009, and an international commitment of $20 billion followed at the G-8 meeting in July.
At the African Growth and Opportunity Act Forum in August, Secretary Clinton further outlined the Administration’s plans to invest in agricultural development in Africa, and called for increased intra-African trade and greater exports to the U.S. and Europe. Secretary Clinton is expected to announce further details on the food security strategy with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a meeting on Saturday, September 26.
Bertini and Glickman serve as co-chairs of a bipartisan group of foreign policy and development leaders convened by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs for its Global Agricultural Development Initiative.
The project report, Renewing American Leadership in the Fight Against Global Hunger and Poverty, published in February, calls for a renewed U.S. commitment to alleviating global poverty through agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions with more than 700 million of the world’s poorest people.
**MEDIA: To arrange interviews, e-mail Samantha Skinner Monroe or call 312-821-7507.
Catherine Ann Bertini, a professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, served as executive director of the UN World Food Program (1992-2002) and as UN under secretary-general for management (2003-05).
Ms. Bertini is credited with assisting hundreds of millions of victims of wars and natural disasters throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. She was awarded the World Food Prize in 2003.
Ms. Bertini is a member of the Board of International Food and Agriculture Development, an advisory committee to USAID; a founding member of the new Global Humanitarian Forum, based in Geneva; and a member of the jury for the Hilton Foundation’s Humanitarian Prize.
Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture (1995-2001), is chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. Under Secretary Glickman’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture administered numerous farm and conservation programs; modernized food safety regulations; forged international trade agreements to expand U.S. markets; and improved its commitment to fairness and equality in civil rights.
Secretary Glickman led the effort to ensure that an effective regulatory approval process based on sound science governs new agricultural technologies.
Previously, he was the director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002-04). Secretary Glickman also served for 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Kansas’ 4th Congressional District.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Samantha Skinner Monroe, 312-821-7507
sskinner@thechicagocouncil.org
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
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