ActionAid has released new evidence that the G8 has been frittering desperately needed money to fight hunger on dubious projects that include bird flu control, patrol boats in Nicaragua and biofuels production in South Africa, despite promises at last year’s G8 to mount ‘decisive action to free the world from hunger’. ActionAid released its research on the eve of the G8 summit in Canada, where world leaders are expected to report back on last year’s $20 billion pledge to tackle the global food crisis.

“Rich countries can not honestly expect the world to believe that growing crops in Africa for fuel or funding patrol boats in Nicaragua can be counted as aid for agriculture,” said Action Aid’s International Policy and Campaign’s Director, Anne Jellema

“Since when was a ship something you can eat?” she added.

The report, ‘The $20 billion question: has the G8 delivered on its hunger promises’, is based on agricultural spending by G8 countries in 2008 – the latest information publically available.

Whilst the G8 promised $20 billion at last year’s summit to help poor countries end hunger, to date there is no official information on how much of this money has been delivered, or how it will be spent. A clear and transparent plan must be announced at this year’s summit, to ensure that the money promised in L’Aquila is not also spent on a patchwork of uncoordinated projects, some of which have little to do with fighting hunger.

The report also provides the latest analysis on the 2009 pledges themselves, revealing that despite the hype, there is no evidence that the sums promised in L’Aquila will produce any real increase in aid to agriculture, above and beyond pre-food crisis levels. Whilst some countries, including the US, have pledged genuine and significant increases in aid, it has been offset by cuts from other donors such as the EU, Japan and Italy.

“G8 laggards are cancelling out the efforts of G8 leaders, and the real losers are the world’s billion hungry people,” said Jellema

There are currently more than a billion hungry people in the world and an estimated 70 per cent of these live in rural communities that rely on farming. It has been commonly accepted that investing in smallholder agriculture in poor countries is critical to reversing global hunger. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in Malawi, where large-scale investment in smallholder farmers trebled maize production in just two years, pulling Malawi out of a 43 per cent food deficit up to a surplus of 57 per cent.

ActionAid’s Hunger Free Coordinator in Africa, Henry Malumo said:

“Malawi is a shining example of how early investment in agriculture can not only feed an entire country, but generate economic prosperity where before there was abject poverty.

“In a time of economic global emergency, rich nations have a responsibility to invest in long-term projects that have the power to both reverse world hunger and transform the economy.”

• More on the G8 2010
• Download the report in pdf format: ‘The $20 billion question: has the G8 delivered on its hunger promises’