Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Mozambique have joined the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which, launched earlier this year by the G8, is aimed at boosting food security and addressing malnutrition in Africa, VOA News reports. “The initiative includes partnerships with international corporations and African companies, and seeks to help bring 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty in the next 10 years,” the news service writes. “The countries pledge to carry out reforms, including increasing domestic agriculture spending, improving land titling, ensuring access for women and families, and altering export and tax policies that have deterred outside agriculture investment,” VOA notes, adding, “They join Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania, which have been part of the program since May” (9/27). “In addition, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced that 21 additional private sector companies, most of them African companies, have signed letters of intent, committing themselves to invest an additional $500 million in African agriculture,” according to a Feed the Future press release (9/26).