Following President Obama's urging, the G8 pledged $20 billion to stop hunger around the world.
From Peter Baker, The New York Times:
L’AQUILA, Italy — President Obama called on African countries to do more to tackle corruption even as he unveiled a $20 billion international program to help the developing world grow more food to feed its hungry people.
Just hours before his scheduled departure for his first trip as president to sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Obama made a personal appeal to other leaders of the Group of 8 powers to donate more money to the effort, citing his own family’s experiences in Kenya. As a result, the initiative grew from $15 billion over three years that was pledged coming into the summit meeting to $20 billion.
At a news conference afterward, Mr. Obama repeated some of the arguments he used in a private session on the initiative, noting that when his father came to the United States, his home country of Kenya had an economy as large as that of South Korea per capita. Today, he noted, Kenya remains impoverished, undeveloped and politically unstable, while South Korea has become an economic powerhouse.
