World Food Prize goes to former leaders of Brazil, Ghana
June 21, 2011 | 08:51 AM
The 2011 World Food Prize was awarded today to two former presidents who led drastic reductions of hunger and poverty in their countries: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, and John Agyekum Kufuor, former president of Ghana. The awards were announced in a ceremony at the State Department and will presented to the two leaders on October 13 in a ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa.
When Lula da Silva became president of Brazil in 2003, his country was already an important agricultural exporter, but had not seriously addressed domestic hunger. He created the Zero Hunger program under which 10 government ministries focused on greater access to food, strengthened family farms and rural incomes, increased enrollment of primary school children, and empowered the poor.
Under Kufuor’s leadership between 2001 and 2009, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of its people who suffer from hunger, and the proportion of people living on less than a dollar per day, on course to meet UN Millenium Development Goal 1.
Kufour implemented major economic and educational policies that increased the quality and quantity of food to Ghanaians, enhanced farmers' incomes, and improved school attendance and child nutrition through a nationwide feeding program.
The World Food Prize was created in 1987 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug. The awards will be presented by the World Food Prize Foundation in conjunction with the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, themed “The Next Generation: Confronting the Hunger Challenges of Tomorrow.”
When Lula da Silva became president of Brazil in 2003, his country was already an important agricultural exporter, but had not seriously addressed domestic hunger. He created the Zero Hunger program under which 10 government ministries focused on greater access to food, strengthened family farms and rural incomes, increased enrollment of primary school children, and empowered the poor.
Under Kufuor’s leadership between 2001 and 2009, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of its people who suffer from hunger, and the proportion of people living on less than a dollar per day, on course to meet UN Millenium Development Goal 1.
Kufour implemented major economic and educational policies that increased the quality and quantity of food to Ghanaians, enhanced farmers' incomes, and improved school attendance and child nutrition through a nationwide feeding program.
The World Food Prize was created in 1987 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug. The awards will be presented by the World Food Prize Foundation in conjunction with the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, themed “The Next Generation: Confronting the Hunger Challenges of Tomorrow.”
