The Hill: Fighting famine is the right thing to do, but building resilience is equally important
Judith Rowland, U.S. policy and advocacy manager for Global Citizen

“Overcoming partisanship and ‘America First’ discourse from the White House, Congress voted [last] week to provide $990 million in emergency funding for famine response as part of the 2017 federal budget. This funding will provide critical and life-saving relief for some of the more than 20 million people across Northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen who are facing threat of famine, starvation, and death. … Funding famine response is the right thing to do. But it is also critical that we start asking difficult questions about how famine can be prevented and resilience can be promoted. Funding for development assistance, especially USAID’s Feed the Future program, is vital for promoting agricultural development, nutrition, and resilience. … Targeted long-term investments in development aid can put people on a long-term path to a more hopeful future. … We must choose to prevent famine by investing in development and food assistance for communities in need” (5/5).