Australia donates money to fight hunger

Australian Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, said Uganda would receive another 7 billion Uganda shillings ($A4.12 million) through the Australian development assistance program next year.

"Under the food security project, Australia will fund the supply of drought and pest resistant seeds to the most vulnerable areas in the country," he said while speaking on Sunday at a dinner for Ugandans who studied under Australian scholarship programs at Serena hotel in Kampala.

During the recent drought many people in eastern and northern Uganda died of hunger.

He said that the UN world food program estimates that more than a billion people in the world lack food and Australia hoped to be able to help African countries realise their own potential to feed not only themselves but the world. "Uganda and the rest of Africa have potential to feed the world. Australia's efforts to boost food production in Africa is part of the solution to the world's food problem," he said.

McMullan, who was flanked by Australian ambassador to Uganda Lisa Filippeto, said that the increased funding would improve access to clean water and reduce child and maternal mortality to help Uganda achieve the millennium development goals by 2015.