Last week, the Obama Administration released its annual President’s budget request. While this document isn’t binding—Congress, not the White House, has the power to decide funding levels for the U.S. government—it traditionally begins the yearly appropriations budget cycle in Washington, and provides a snapshot of the administration’s funding and policy priorities.

So, what does the President’s budget request mean for the nutrition, food security, and water, sanitation, and hygiene programs we prioritize at Action Against Hunger?  Unfortunately for us and other  global humanitarian actors, for the most part, it’s not good news.

Nutrition

The President’s budget recommends funding the nutrition account for Fiscal Year 2017 at a level of $108 million—$17 million less than it received in last year’s budget and far below the $230 million that many nutrition-focused organizations, including Action Against Hunger, have urged for the upcoming year. 

With the much-anticipated Nutrition for Growth Summit taking place in Brazil this August—the event will draw world leaders from around the globe to focus on nutrition issues prior to the Olympics—it would be a tremendous missed opportunity for the U.S. government not to provide adequate funding for nutrition programs at this juncture.  We hope that Congress will decide to fund the nutrition account at a much higher level than the President’s request.

Food Security, Maternal & Child Health, and Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene

Here’s how some other budget accounts related to our work fared in the President’s proposal:

Food Security

• The Food for Peace program, which funds both emergency and development-focused U.S. food assistance programming, was allocated $1.35 billion, down 21 percent from $1.716 billion last year (last year’s total included a one-time bump up to deal with humanitarian crises affecting food security around the globe). 
• Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, received $870 million, but this would increase to $978 million when funding from other programs is factored in. This is a slight decrease from last year’s $1 billion total. 
• The McGovern-Dole program, which provides meals to schoolchildren in developing countries, was funded at $182 million, down 10 percent from $202 million last year. 

Maternal & Child Health: Maternal and child health was a winner in the President’s budget, with a recommended funding level of $814 million.  This is a nine percent increase from last year’s level of $750 million.

Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene: Water funding received $256 million in the President’s budget, down significantly (36 percent) from the $400 million it received from Congress last year.

Given the many ongoing crises around the globe which threaten food security, and the need for strong funding levels for nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene, the relatively low suggested funding levels in the President’s budget request are disappointing and would be insufficient to meet the needs of many of the people around the world who benefit from Action Against Hunger’s programs.  We hope that when the Senate and House of Representatives sit down to write their budgets, they will take these needs into consideration and provide much more robust funding for the international development budget.

As the congressional budget process begins, Action Against Hunger will continue to advocate for strong funding levels for the accounts that help us carry out our work across the globe.  Stay tuned for more news over the next few months.