Obama on food security, Ghana

Jul 10th, 2009 1:38 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

President Obama took an opportunity while at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy to speak about food security in Africa. He also spoke about the need for openness, stating that “countries in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the world that are suffering from extreme poverty have an obligation to use the assistance that’s available in a way that’s transparent, accountable, and that builds on the rule of law and other institutional reforms that will allow long-term improvement.”

Check out the clip (partial transcript below):

There is no reason why Africa cannot be self-sufficient when it comes to food. … What’s lacking is the right seeds, the right irrigation, but also the kinds of institutional mechanisms [that work for ordinary people].
…

My father traveled to the United States a mere 50 years ago. And yet now I have family members who live in villages — they themselves are not going hungry, but live in villages where hunger is real. And so this is something that I understand in very personal terms. [...] I want to be very careful: Africa is a continent not a country, so you can’t extrapolate from the experience of one country. [...] Part of the reason we’re traveling to Ghana is because you’ve got, there, a functioning democracy, a president who’s serious about reducing corruption, and you’ve seen significant economic growth.

-Chris Scott

TAGS: Obama in Ghana