Universities, national governments and non-governmental organizations sent delegates to the Hilltop yesterday for a day-long conference in Copley Formal Lounge launching the Universities Fighting World Hunger initiative.

Over 50 American universities are already participating in this project, which aims to eradicate world hunger. The event was held in conjunction with World Food Day, which celebrates the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations in 1945.

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) addressed the vast divide between industrial and developing nations during a press conference in the morning.

“Today, sadly, it’s a tale of two worlds,” he said. “What can our world do to help our sisters and brothers of the other world?”

James Morris, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said that countries around the world should work together in addressing world hunger.

“We need to come together and acknowledge that it is no longer acceptable for 400 million kids to be malnourished,” he said. “It is an indictment of humanity.”

Morris said wealthy nations have an obligation to help feed children in impoverished countries, adding that several, including Canada and Luxembourg, have already raised significant funds.

Over 850 million people in this world suffer from malnutrition, the speakers said, causing more than 25,000 deaths each day. Nearly three-quarters of those suffering from malnutrition live in only 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Students who travel to other countries and see this poverty firsthand have the best understanding of the issue, said Lauren Bush, WFP student ambassador and niece of President George Bush. Lauren Bush also took part in a conference in ICC Sunday.

“Young people must become aware of and must alleviate this suffering,” she said. “Students also have the most potential for creative energy.”

During a panel discussion later in the day, Callisto Madavo, a visiting professor in African Studies at Georgetown, said foreign aid can be both beneficial and harmful to impoverished nations. He said that more than half of food that is given to Africa is already spoiled when it arrives, and that African nations will need to make a long-term investment in agriculture.

“With the system we have now, the food comes too little, too late,” Madavo said. “Emergency food giving can only be a short-term solution.”

Madavo said that Africans are nearly twice as likely to be malnourished as those in other developing regions.

Other attendees at the conference included Max Finberg, executive director of Alliance to End Hunger, David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World and Tony Hall, the U.S. ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations.

The conference was sponsored by the Mortara Center for International Studies, the Center for Social Justice, Georgetown’s Initiative on International Development and several other groups.