The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

M A R C H 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 F OCUS ON H UNGER AS A F ORE IGN P OL ICY I SSUE F EED THE F UTURE : M AKING A R EAL D IFFERENCE Lillian G. deValcourt-Ayala nyone who doubts the urgency and value of achieving global food security should meet Aisha, a young mother who had to walk, unnourished, for several days to reach a therapeutic feeding camp in Ethiopia last summer. She barely made it, and might have given up had it not been for her year-old daughter — who, by the time they arrived, weighed just a third of what a healthy child her age should. Heart-wrenching as her story is, Aisha is just one of millions at risk in the Horn of Africa due to a regional drought. The A L ESS THAN THREE YEARS AFTER ITS INCEPTION , THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ’ S NEW RESPONSE TO FOOD INSECURITY IS ALREADY CHANGING MILLIONS OF LIVES . B Y P AUL W EISENFELD