Around a hundred U.K. charities joined forces Wednesday to capture the world’s attention on global hunger.
Leading aid groups such as Oxfam, Save the Children, World Vision, UNICEF and CARE launched the “Enough Food for Everyone IF” campaign, which calls on Prime Minister David Cameron to use the U.K.’s G-8 presidency this year to tackle hunger and its underlying causes. One in eight people go to bed hungry each night; 2.3 million children die from malnutrition each year, according to the coalition.
The groups are challenging Cameron to help convince governments to stop land grabs and the use of biofuels for cars, keep their aid promises and invest in small farmers, stop companies from dodging taxes in developing countries, and boost transparency and accountability.
Cameron has welcomed the campaign. In a video message, he said the United Kingdom will continue to lead the fight against global hunger and malnutrition in 2013 through a “special event” before the G-8 summit on June 17-18. The United Kingdom will also “drive progress” on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which was launched in May.
The United Kingdom’s hunger summit last year garnered mixed reactions from the aid community, but many hoped it would build momentum on the fight against the so-called “hidden killer.”
“Times are hard in the U.K., but they are infinitely harder for the world’s poorest families,” Cameron said. “Undernutrition holds back the growth and development of millions of children. This is simply not acceptable in 2013.”
The campaign’s launch was attended by a number of well-known U.K. personalities and received backing from philanthropist Bill Gates and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu. It comes on the heels of an Oxfam report that says the annual income of the world’s 100 richest people could end global poverty.
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