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Recasting Food Aid’s Policies: The Particulars and The Politics

FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE. Recasting Food Aid’s Policies: The Particulars and The Politics. Jarkyn Samanchina Massimo Pagnoni Mahira Sheikh. INTRODUCTION. Reforms needed Improved targeting by operational agencies

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Recasting Food Aid’s Policies: The Particulars and The Politics

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  1. FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE Recasting Food Aid’s Policies: The Particulars and The Politics JarkynSamanchina Massimo Pagnoni MahiraSheikh

  2. INTRODUCTION • Reforms needed • Improved targeting by operational agencies • Global food aid agreement involving both donors and recepient countries • Change in structure, conduct and performance of food aid globally (WTO Doha Round, next Farm Bill in the U.S. Congress) • Strong legislative leadership to satisfy interests of all parties FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  3. A) International Policy Changes Needs A) International Policy ChangesNeeded • Recommendation 1: Negotiate a new Global Food Aid Compact to replace the expired Food Aid Convention • FAC: minimum volume of food aid not to disrupt commercial trade; food aid slow to untie (U.S.) • GFAC: include donors, recipient country governments and agencies – ownership and responsibility WFP distributesfood in Palestinianschools FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  4. A) International Policy Changes Needs (cont’d) • GFAC to commit donor countries to • Tonnage minima: three quarters of projected global emergency needs; surplus to be stored and used unrestrictedly through IEFR for future emergencies • Adequate complimentary financial resources and relaxation of rules mandating donor-country procurement, processing and shipping services • Cash: GFAC to include untied donor minimum financial contributions to WFP and NGO signatories to FGAC at least equal in value to their physical volume commitments (inefficiency of IMF’s CFF) FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  5. A) International Policy Changes Needs (cont’d) • Linking GFAC to WTO agreement to reduce trade-related disputes over food aid • Make WTO’s proven trade-related disciplines and dispute resolution mechanisms available for food aid • Establish a GFAC Secretariat within WFP co-chaired by WTO and OECD-DAC • Recognize interlinkages between food aid, global agricultural trade and overseas development assistance FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  6. A) International Policy Changes Needs (cont’d) • Recommendation 2: Restorereal global developmentassistanceflows – not just emergencyassistance • Foreign aid is necessary for effective food aid: decline of aid to low-income countries in last decade • “Relief trap” – emergency spending crowding out development spending • Food insecurity mostly in rural areas – agricultural and rural development important to coherent strategy of poverty and food insecurity reduction FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  7. B) UnitedStates Policy ChangesNeeds B) United State Policy Changes Needed • American food aid programs remain stuck in a model crafted in a very different era • Designed mainly for surplus disposal • Used as a tool to promote commercial agricultural exports and advance American geopolitical interests (proved false) • Achieved partial success in development and humanitarian assistance FoodAidDistribution In Liberia FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  8. A) International Policy ChangeNeeds (cont’d) B) UnitedStates Policy ChangesNeeds (cont’d) • Recommendation 3: Negotiatereductions in outdatedformsoffoodaid in exchangeforreductions in EU export subsidiesthatharmboth US and developingcountryfarmers • WTO’s Doha Round negotationsheavilyemphasizeagriculturaltradeliberalization • Agriculture (10%) is the most heavily protected sector: two thirds of economic gains from complete liberalization of trade would come from agriculture • Heavy tax on local consumers, yet powerful domestic farm lobbies • WB estimates that ending trade-distorting farm subsidies and tariffs would increase global wealth by over $800 billion and lift over 150 million people out of poverty by 2015 FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  9. B) UnitedStates Policy ChangesNeeds (cont’d) • Recommendation 4: Focus on quicker and more flexibleemergencyresponse • Food aid is impactful in saving lives during emergencies and in post-crisis recoveries • Shippingfoodisexpensive due to the currentU.Smandates. Improved by :  the congress giving the USAID Administrator authority to deploy food aid in the early stages of emergencies without the usual mandates on domestic procuremnet, bagging and US flag carrier shipment. FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  10. B) UnitedStates Policy ChangesNeeds (cont’d) • Recommendation 5: Eliminate bureaucratic duplication • Federal Government consolidated 6 food aid programs into 2 agencies (USAID-USDA) • OMB proposed that these should run into a single program  USAID • Recognizing food aid as just one tool among several saves money by reducing bureaucratic duplication of effort and thus makes it more effective USAID – Sudan FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  11. B) UnitedStates Policy ChangesNeeds (cont’d) • Recommendation 6: Within current budgets, adapt the resource to fit the application • While direct distribution of food can address hunger in emergencies, it is not sufficient to address the causes of hunger • American policy should focus more on food security and less on food as a resource. Increase in cash resources for development programming by NGOs Cheaper to prevent crisis than to respond to them! Political will should be enhanced Increased coordination among NGOs • Leads to improvement. Less variant changes are already taking shape in Iraq. FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  12. C) OtherBilateralDonor Policy ChangesNeeded • Not only the U.S but other bilateral donors need to make food aid policy changes • No precise recommendations  Variations between different bilateral donors as to the most desirable reforms • Donors, especially Japan, need to mainstream food aid with development assistance and reduce the influence of food aid by ministries and enterprises • Canada  instructive since food aid comes from a central aid budget, making the tradeoffs between food and cash clear to decision-makers • EU  needs to increase the efficiencies at their approval and disbursement FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  13. D) RecipientCountrygovernment and community Policy ChangesNeeded • Local and national governments need to become more proactive. This requires: • Direct government action • Increased cooperation with operational agencies and donors. • Recipient countries: that are chronically vulnerable to food crises need • well-managed food security • pre-arranged letters of credit for food imports in order to be adequately efficient in the early stages of an emergency FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  14. E) OperationalAgency Policy and ProgrammingChangesNeeded • Recommendation 7: Improve the targeting of food aid. • Improvement is needed to continue to improve targeting not only who should receive food aid, but what kind of assistance and when they need it • Achieved by having good information and experienced food distribution staff FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  15. E) OperationalAgency Policy and ProgrammingChangesNeeded • Recommendation 8: Usefoodaidonlywhereitis appropriate. • Foodaidhasbeenusedas a resource in variousways : • Toaddress acute hunger • To improve agricultural production, health and education • Food aid is ideally suited when it addresses acute food insecurity in humanitarian emergencies. • Emergency food aid should be directed to the nutrient content of food aid transfers. • An investment in long-termhuman capital – especially in protectingvulnerablechidlren. FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  16. F) The PoliticsofReform Reforms • recasting food aid programs • Convincing the NGOs • NGOs must take a leading role in mobilizing public support for private and public funding • This will enhance and not constrain the alleviation of poverty FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  17. F) The PoliticsofReform b) Addressing Maritime Interests • Transport • The biggest expenditure that does not directly benefit food aid (more than 40%) • U.S shippers have used programs at their own interests • Farm lobby and shippers make money at the expense of NGOs and poor people in whose name the agricultural and maritime interests promote food aid • Reforms: • Consolidate subsidies under a single program that will terminate cargo preference conditions • Reduce slow-cost competition in food aid transport • Improve commercial competitiveness FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  18. F) The PoliticsofReform c) Satisfying donor country agricultural interests • In the agricultural sector there are few real beneficiaries from current food aid programs. • The total amount of food aid is not relevant with respect to the whole food production (1%-2%) • Reforms: • relaxing various restrictions that make international food assistance expensive and slow FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  19. F) The PoliticsofReform F) The Politics of Reform Other Supporters: 3 Main groups with overlapping interests • Foreign policy community • national security interests are strictly related to global poverty reduction (MDG 1) • this is a good occasion to restructure the system • a way for strengthening the North-Atlantic relations • International financial community • benefits directly from the reallocation of development assistance from food to cash • stimulates demand for financial services (insurance against natural disaster) • reduce commercial trade inefficiencies • Groups advocating for fiscal responsibility • tax payers • elimination of bureaucratic duplications (recommendation 5) This can yield budgetary saving of nearly 20% FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  20. Conclusion In the current World Food Security Summit, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf stresses: “The world only needs 30 billion dollars a year to eradicate hunger” Global food aid system underperforms its potential due to misguided policies: few significant policies and operational change could make existing food aid more effective in reducing poverty and hunger This can be reached easily by recasting food aid FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

  21. ThankYou FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE FOOD AID AFTER FIFTY YEARS: RECASTING ITS ROLE

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