David Beasley is the former Governor of South Carolina, and most recently served as the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize under his leadership. He will speak at James Madison University’s “Rocco Forum on the Future” on Friday. I asked Beasley how his time as governor prepared him for humanitarian work.
David Beasley: Being governor of a state, you establish a vision, you put together a team, execute a plan, bringing all sides together to improve the quality of life and address the issues that you're faced with. So, governors historically have the experience of addressing issues and doing what's necessary to achieve the objectives that you need. And so, in the World Food Programme job. I got a phone call, but I'd be interested in it. I said, absolutely not. I'm not looking for a job. And quite frankly, I didn't know much about the World Food Programme, but a group of Democrat and Republican U.S. senators said, you've got to do this. You're the only one that could talk the Trump administration into not to cutting foreign aid, and you're the only one that can do this and do that, et cetera. I'm like, guys, I'm not looking for a job. Well, anyway, I got talked into it, and quite frankly, it's the greatest job I've ever I've had in my life saving the lives of millions of people around the world. But the experiences as governor that that you have brought to the table the ability to be able to communicate a message, to build a team, execute a plan, address the issues and bring awareness globally to the leaders of the world of the travesty that's taking place because of people not getting the food they need from starvation to mass migration to destabilization. And we can talk all about that. Being a former United States governor with those experiences of dealing with complex and heated issues gives you the background that's necessary in a job like that.
WMRA: Why is hunger relief important in conflict zones?
Beasley: Yeah, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, when they awarded the World Food Programme, when I was executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize, they clearly understood the power of food and how food is used as a weapon of war. And we use food as a weapon of peace, bringing tribes and warring factions together, understanding what it means. And when people don't have food, they're more vulnerable. Not just, I can give you statistics, like for every 1% increase in hunger, there's a 2% increase in migration. But I've had more mothers, for example, tell me my son, my husband didn't want to join ISIS or Al-Qaeda or Boko Haram or Al-Shabaab, you know, whatever. But we hadn't fed our child in two weeks, Mr. Beasley, what were we supposed to do? We had no choices. And so, when families have food security, it minimizes the risk of destabilization. It minimizes the risk of migration. And let me explain this, because when I've given talks to the United States Senate or the US House or the Bundestag in Germany or the Parliament in the UK or Canada or wherever, because you'll get this very simple question. Why, as a taxpayer, let's say from Virginia or Texas, why should I send my taxpayer dollar down to Guatemala, Honduras, or Chad or Niger when we have funding needs right here at home on healthcare and infrastructure and education? Very valid question. And so, I would respond, let me explain it. Number one, if you're not going to do it out of the goodness of your heart to love your neighbor, then you better do it out of your financial and your national security interests. And let me explain, not hypothetically, but anecdotally. And these are just simple examples. For example, when the Syria crisis took place, you had a million refugees that went to Germany at a cost of $125 billion over a five-year period. Now, do the math. That's $70 per person from Syria inside Germany. if I were able to feed those Syrians inside Syria, it's 50 cents a day. So, because they failed to address the root cause and prevent the migration, it cost the German taxpayer $125 billion over five years. As I said, $70 a day per person. Divide that by 50 cents is $140. So, if you had done it right, it would have cost less than $1 billion to provide food for security for those Syrian refugees had they done it right. Same thing on the US border when we don't address root cause. And I can give numbers that are just shocking. And so, number one, do what's right. Number two, stabilize the population. Number three, it saves lives, it prevents destabilization of nations, and it prevents refugee crisis in so many places. And it saves taxpayers dollars, which frees up money for infrastructure, education, and healthcare. And this is not hyperbole or hypothetical. This is anecdotal. I've been there on the ground. I've seen it firsthand.
WMRA: Your term was extended because there was the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. How did it feel to continue that term with these new problems arising?
Beasley: Well, yeah, as you know, I was appointed by both administrations, the Trump administration and the Biden administration, are nominated as to the United Nations role in the World Food Programme Executive Director. And when I took the job back in 2017, there were only 80 million people, as we would say, marching to starvation, not knowing where the next meal's coming from. So, I'm thinking as a former United States governor, we set goals, objectives, benchmarks, measures, executed plan. I could put the World Food Programme out of business with, you know, 7.6 billion population at that time. And so, after the first year, the number went from 80 to 135 million people. And you step back and say, what happened? War, conflict, violence, climate shocks. And this is before COVID hit. COVID then comes on the scene and the number jumps from 135 to 276 million people marching to starvation around the world. Then when you think it can't get any worse, guess what happens? The breadbasket of the world is invaded by Russia as to Ukraine. And so, the number jumped from 276 to 350 million people. So, it was just getting worse and worse and worse. And so, I was having to, raise the declaring call to leaders around the world, you're going to have deep mass destabilization, mass migration. We've got to do something about it. And so, we went from raising a little less than $6 billion to over $14 billion to reach 160 million people, you know, in about 100. countries around the world, which stabilized the populations, prevented mass migrations in war and conflict. And so, it's a tremendous success story. But now let's roll the tape forward. And here we are. All oil prices are spiking, which means fertilizer costs, fuel costs for operating farming equipment, logistics, supply chain systems, they're all spiking to increased costs. You couple that with what we're facing today, compound that with the fact that the United States and other major donor nations around the world are cutting foreign aid dramatically, you are facing what I consider to be a hellacious hurricane coming. I mean, the devastation storm of the century is coming and going to be taking place. It's going to be travesty in the next year.
WMRA: In order to help in these conflict zones, it's a matter of cooperation. And I think this was something that you had focused on during your term, was a cooperation between the public and the private sector. When you accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, you called on billionaires to step up and help source the $5 billion needed to fund the Programme. In retrospect, have they done that?
Beasley: When you make money, you have a moral responsibility to help the poor and the needy, right? And so, during the height of COVID, the average net worth increase for billionaires per day, per day was $5.2 billion. So, I was like, look, I'm $6 billion short of what I need to stabilize and feed people around the world. How about just give me one day's worth of your net worth increase? Is that too much to ask? And so, then I started tweeting at that time, I was tweeting to Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos. and many of the other billionaires. And I've received virtually nothing from them. Bezos stepped up a little bit with World Central Kitchen, but generally it was nothing. But what I was able to do in the private sector in general was increase from maybe $50 or $60 million a year to $300 or $400 million. And not that that's a drop in the bucket because every dollar does matter. But the wealthiest in the world, in my opinion, in difficult times when they're making so much money, it's in their best interest and it's in the world's best interest that they, number one, show why capitalism is good for everybody. And this is an opportunity to prove that you have a heart, and you care for the poor. this type of thing. But they're not stepping up like they should, and nor are the political leaders. And that was the advantage of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Before, if I wanted to speak with the CEO of Microsoft or Google, I mean, I couldn't get a meeting, but after you get the Nobel Peace Prize, they all want to meet with you. So, I'll be very clear, very honest. I exploited it, took advantage of it, and I went from raising what was about $10 million a day to $39 million a day. And we were able to reach literally 160 million people. And we not just saved lives and helped children have a better future of preventing wasting and stunting, but we stabilized populations and we were able to minimize mass migration as a result.
WMRA: What is the message that you're hoping to convey at Friday's event?
Beasley: It's going to be an opportunity to talk to the American people about the reality that we are facing. Explain to them what I've seen around the world and why America is so respected around the world, because America is great, because America is good. That's the truth. We help people around the world. And today, what I have seen around the world when people stop talking to one another and they start fighting one another, and they don't do the things they need to do and the nations destabilize. What I see in America today, the trajectory that we're on is the wrong path because we're more divided than any time period in world history. And so how do we and what do we do to move America in the right direction? And that's what I'm going to talk about because The American people, by and large, are the most gracious, giving, good people I've met anywhere on the planet. But right now, everybody's fighting one another on social media, and it's absolutely out of control. And so, what are we going to do about it? And that's... One of the things I want to talk to the American people about, look, when Democrats and Republicans are fighting each other like they are, it's up to we the people. to do what's good, to do what's right, loving our neighbor, caring for one another. We can find solutions. We can find a path forward.
WMRA: David, thank you so much for taking the time to talk today, and we're looking forward to your visit on Friday.
Beasley: You got it. Thanks, Calvin.
