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Food and Water Crisis

This is official. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Robert Zoellick have already sounded the alarm. Delegates in the Davos meeting this year were requested to respond. The food and water crisis is set to hit the world hard and if corrective actions are not taken on time, it can take the form of a catastrophe.

Food prices continue to go up and in a world where 1.02 billion people are hungry (WFP), this is definitely not a good news. At a time when thousands of people are made homeless every day due to conflicts in different parts of the world, this crisis is taking a toll of many lives. Food riots have become common phenomena in Sub Saharan Africa, Haiti, Bangladesh and in many other developing countries. The situation is already so severe that even big organizations like World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and UNHCR are struggling to curb this crisis.

How did we reach this point? The world is running out of water and this has severely impacted food production. The demand for food is ever increasing, particularly from emerging populous economies like India and China. Countries with food surpluses few years ago are now struggling to feed themselves. India, for instance, used to export rice to Bangladesh till few years ago. Owing to decreasing food production and increasing prediction of food shortages, India now imports rice from Australia, triggering rice crisis in Bangladesh. On top of that, increasing food production for bio fuels has further complicated the matter and raises more questions than solutions. It has given rise not just to ethical dilemmas and controversies but also to steep price hikes making food out of reach from the hands of world’s poorest population.

Having realized the gravity of this issue, Asia America Initiative launched several agricultural projects in Mindanao, Philippines. We empower agricultural communities not just to be self-sufficient but also to provide surplus to other communities in desperate need. Join AAI as we create models of communities that can be followed all over the world to best tackle food and water crisis.

Families for Hope

Join Asia America Initiative's Families for Hope program to help displaced families in Afghanistan. This program matches donors with refugee family in Afghanistan -- giving them hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.



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VOA's coverage of Asia America Initiative's Program

Asia America Initiative's Cancer Treatment for the Poor program is a model of cost-effective humanitarian action. The program brings hope to the lives of hundreds of cancer victims who otherwise would have no access to treatment.

AAI receives no government funding for the program. We rely on donations of medicines from partner organizations and funding support from private citizens to cover basic costs.

VOA's Coverage

Troubles in South Asia

South Asia is a center of international conflict and a region rife with dramatic paradoxes. Home to India, the largest democracy in the world, it also is the center of religious extremism in the form of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Hindu extremists, Maoist guerrillas and other violent quasi-religious organizations. Home to powerful women leaders like Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Sheikh Hasina, Khaled Zia and Sonia Gandhi, the region has suffered through assassinations of some of those female leaders, women rights violations and extensive girls’ illiteracy. The region, in its entirety, is ethnically similar; yet it is full of tribal and cultural differences.

While Pakistan and Afghanistan currently cover the front pages of newspapers, other counties in South Asia are also experiencing rampant turmoil. South Asian countries have histories of troubles that often spill over the region. Tamil expatriates from India started a civil war in Sri Lanka in 1976 which, according to many, ended recently in May 2009 after the insurgents were defeated by Sri Lankan army. The massive loss of civilian lives, for which both sides are responsible, is largely unaccounted for. Similarly, Bhutanese refugees who have been staying in Nepal since the early 1990s raise important security questions and are threat to political stability in the region. The civil war in Nepal came to an end on paper but not on streets. India and Bangladesh have not forgotten their animosity over the partition of Bengal. Last but definitely not the least, a nuclear weapons threat overshadows the India-Pakistan rivalry.

One thing has been constant in most of these troubles -- international intervention has not improved the corruption it gave rise to. Bangladesh and Pakistan are renowned for extreme corruption and Nepal is currently catching up. Foreign intervention has led to concentration of power in the hands of a tiny elite population who controls a big chunk of country’s assets. The ever widening gap between the ruler and the ruled is the reason we see unhappy people on streets and chaos everywhere. Foreign aid has rarely empowered people and, for all intents and purposes, foreign aid must be reformed.

Asia America Initiative was created seven years ago, after the 9/11 tragedy to curb the cycle of poverty and underdevelopment that feeds extremism. The lack of hope in many areas of the world is intensified by corrupt governments. We must go right where the problem lies and where the solutions can be found through local empowerment -- among common people, in their communities. Peace can only emerge when people feel empowered and can change their lives for the better. The articles below show the consequences of failed local governments and shortsighted or violence-driven international military intervention.