A- The benefits in recipient countries: saving life and
providing relief
For almost six decades, the United States has played a leading
role in global efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition and to enhance
world food security through the sale on concessional terms or donation of U.S.
agricultural commodities. The objectives for foreign food aid include providing
emergency and humanitarian assistance in response to natural or manmade
disasters, and promoting agricultural development and food security.
Emergency Food Aid is essential in situations of acute food
insecurity to prevent malnutrition and to protect livelihoods. Food aid not
only saves lives in crisis situations but also prevents the use of coping
strategies that can be damaging for economic recovery such as the consumption
of seeds, the
31 Grunewald François, (1996) « Pour ou contre l'aide
alimentaire », in Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge n°
822, pp. 633-654.
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slaughtering or the sale of livestock, depletion of capital
goods, migration to cities or deforestation. As a result, it not only prevents
malnutrition in disaster situations but can also prevent people facing
temporary crisis situations from falling into chronic poverty and food
insecurity. The benefits of food aid can be similar at the national level, as
it may save substantial national resources and foreign exchange reserves, which
can be then spent on essential services and investments instead of being used
for food imports. Food aid can be particularly critical for countries such as
the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that are heavily reliant on food imports
and that lack financial resources and foreign exchange for food imports.
Relief Food Aid has, without a doubt, saved millions of lives
in crisis situations since it was created. However, as mentioned previously,
until recently, it was marginal compared to Program Food Aid. The second
section of this report examines Relief Food Aid and the consequences of this
recent change in more detail. However, before we examine Relief Food Aid, the
role played by food aid, and primarily Program Food Aid, as a foreign policy
and trade instrument deserves specific attention because of its indirect but
critical impact on world hunger. Program Food Aid has been considered an
instrument of development in two ways. First, it constitutes a direct economic
support to net food importing countries, allowing savings in financial
resources and foreign exchange. These savings on food imports can be allocated
for other expenditures. In addition to providing direct financial assistance,
revenues generated by the sales of commodities may cover additional government
expenditures, some of which may facilitate nationwide development. However,
over the past decades, Program Food Aid has rarely been development oriented,
as for instance this budgetary support could mean increased military
expenditures. This occurred in the case of US food aid to Vietnam and Indonesia
in the 1960s and 1970s. Further, this form of aid, like cash assistance, has
often been tied to policy or trade deals, which are not necessarily
advantageous for recipient countries.
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A second function of Program Food Aid has been to support the
structural shift from subsistence agriculture to industrialization and cash
crops. Development has generally been the official goal announced for such
interventions, and may have been a genuine concern in certain cases, especially
for friendly countries during the Cold War. Without a doubt, many food aid
recipients, starting with those of the Marshall Plan in Europe after World War
II, have managed to use this assistance wisely, integrating it into broader
development policies aimed at industrialization and food self-sufficiency,
which ultimately boosted living standards and human development.
Ragnar Nurske32 believes that food aid is
important. He argues that food aid could provide an important stimulus to
industrial development. He explains that in the presence of an inelastic supply
of domestic food, it could prevent the domestic terms of trade from turning
against the emerging industrial sector. Nurske adds that if food aid were used
to help underemployed labour build infrastructure, for instance, it could
contribute to one fourth of investment cost and ease the foreign exchange gap
resulting from the responsiveness of domestic supply to rising demand during
the initial stages of development.
Lavy says «food aid has a significant positive effect
on food production and any disincentive induced by the additional supply of
food is offset by the positive effects»33. Food aid may
increase net household incomes and release resources for investment in
agricultural inputs. Food aid may be used indirectly to provide support or act
as an incentive for initiatives in community and economic development. Food aid
improves food security by providing a means of protection and a way to raise
the dietary status, nutrition and consumption of the poor. In addition, food
aid can contribute to several other development objectives such as raising
labour productivity, improving natural infrastructure
32 Cited by Ruttan, V.W., (1993) Why food aid?
Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.
33 Lavy V., (1990) Does food aid depress food production? The
disincentive dilemma in the African context, Washington D.C, World
Bank.
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through food aid-sponsored projects, offsetting inflationary
pressures and providing support to the balance of payments or the government's
budget through the generation of so-called counterpart funds.
Shocks such as war or natural disasters and the resulting
destruction and displacement damage people's livelihood in different ways: loss
of belongings and assets, disruption of productive activities and markets, and
elimination of state and community support mechanisms. Such conditions require
the immediate creation of a comprehensive relief assistance package. Food,
water, sanitation and health care are the first needs that must be addressed
but aid may also include basic items such as cooking utensils, fuel,
mattresses, blankets, and hygiene products. The requirement for this relief aid
is enshrined in the right to food and the right to assistance, specified by
various international legal documents such as the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the Geneva Conventions.
Under extreme circumstances, the provision of food aid
prevents malnutrition and can aid economically and as such, it constitutes a
legal obligation. The need for food aid in extreme circumstances varies:
- In the case of displaced people or refugee populations, the
need for food assistance can last for years. This is due to legal restrictions
around the employment of refugees, the limitations to agriculture due to the
lack of arable land, and limited income opportunities in displaced camps.
- After natural disasters, the need for food aid is generally
limited to shorter periods of time--a matter of few months or even a few weeks,
e.g. until business is restored in a flooded area--given that food aid can be
replaced by cash assistance as soon as local markets and the local economy are
reactivated.
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- In war situations, food assistance can be essential for both
displaced populations and residents as, apart from displacement, access to food
is limited by the loss of crops and productive activities and the disruption of
commercial activity and markets. Food aid often remains essential as long as
fighting continues, which can be for years.
When people do not have alternative sources of food or income,
which is the case for most displaced populations and refugees, WHO
international standards recognize that every affected individual should receive
a balanced ration providing a minimum nutritional intake of 2.100 Kcal per day,
without limitation in terms of duration of the assistance. Supported by
international legal documents and standards and driven by a lifesaving
imperative, the rationale and the modalities for Relief Food Aid are therefore
relatively clear and do not call for debate.
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