(New York) MintPress — The 2012 Olympics host city London is using its time in the spotlight to illuminate more than the world’s greatest athletes. British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold a hunger summit on August 12, the closing day of the Games, to kick start a joint effort by global leaders to address starvation and malnutrition worldwide.

The move comes amid claims that construction of living quarters in former slums near the Olympics Stadium in East London forced out thousands of impoverished residents who called the area home.

According to Oxfam, almost a billion people are now hungry – 1 in 7 of the world’s population.

Announcing the event in Parliament, Cameron said, “It’s really important that, while the eyes of the world are on Britain and we are going to put on this fantastic show for the Olympics, we remember people in other parts of the world who, far from being excited about the Olympics, are actually worried about their next meal and whether they are getting enough to eat.”

He said the recent famine in the Horn of Africa was a “huge reminder” of the threat posed by drought and not having sufficient food.

“Encouraging the private sector to create jobs is one of the best routes to sustainable, equitable growth in poorer countries,” Cameron continued. “But aid still has a vital role to play. For the first time in a decade, the amount of aid given by the world’s richest countries to the world’s poorest countries has fallen back. Promises are being broken. This is wrong.”

The summit was first discussed in May, following the G8 summit in the U.S., where eight of the world’s wealthiest nations pledged to speed up progress on combating hunger and malnutrition. Heads of states, NGOs and private sector leaders are expected to attend.

Aid organizations have welcomed the move. “In recent years, Beijing, Athens and Sydney have all claimed wonderful legacies from their Games, with new housing, sports arenas and urban regeneration,” said Save the Children’s chief executive, Justin Forsyth. “But London’s legacy could be the biggest yet, if the world follows Britain’s lead and acts to help millions of the world’s neediest children.”

Critical conditions

A study published last week by Save the Children found the number of kids experiencing hunger and malnutrition had risen for the first time in a decade. Malnutrition is now the underlying cause of death for 2.6 million children each year.

Save the Children’s Forsyth said Africa was in a “permanent food crisis,” adding, “It is lurching from one crisis to the next. One bad year tips families over the edge, and the world responds to the emergency, but this is the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface, there is a huge ongoing crisis we don’t address.”

Oxfam’s chief executive in Britain, Barbara Stocking, called the summit “a positive step forward,” but stressed, “It must be the start of concerted action. Dwindling natural resources and the gathering pace of climate change mean that without urgent action, things will only get worse, and multiple major crises could quickly move from being an exception to being the norm.”

According to Oxfam, cycles of drought combined with low levels of agricultural development, environmental degradation, high population growth and acute levels of poverty contribute to a context of “chronic” vulnerability.

End game

No specific targets for the summit have been set, but aid organizations are likely to push for a commitment to significantly reduce malnutrition by the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.

Cameron said that he and Brazil’s vice president, Michel Temer, who is co-hosting the event, want to “use the summit to find new ways of tackling hunger and malnutrition, fostering innovation in biotechnology, encouraging stronger cooperation between governments and ensuring better accountability by governments who receive aid.”

He added that he hopes to “agree a package of measures to transform the lives of millions of children” before the Rio Olympics.

In his address to Parliament, Cameron said, “Britain continues to honor its commitments. Other nations should do likewise – and in our G8 next year, we will once again produce the report which shows who has and who hasn’t.”