Transcript Diapositiva 1

Recasting Food Aid’s Role
The General Strategy
Catia Dos Santos
Michael Fabbroni
Aldo Galvani
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu
Food Aid’s Role in Humanitarian Assistance and
Development
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Food aid is one of the resources that can be used to
meet humanitarian and development goals.
It is not a Panacea and it should be used to solve a
particular problem when it is the most effective
resource.
A preliminary context analysis should question if Food
Aid is necessary (i.e. acute humanitarian crisis) and in
which cases it should be used (food deficit and market
failures).
Different mechanisms to tackle food insecurity
and poverty
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Rights based approach (decent standard of living)
Asset based approach (economics of poverty traps)
STRATEGIES TO FACE FOOD INSECURITY AND POVERTY:
1. Emergency and humanitarian assistance (fast emergency reponse);
2. Safety nets;
3. Cargo nets (Investments strategy);
4. Monetization;
5. Local purchases, and triangular transactions;
6. Program food aid.
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Emergency and humanitarian assistance: in which
cases is food aid appropriate?
In cases of humanitarian emergencies food aid is
delivered to ensure life protection and the fulfilment of
basic rights.
A crucial decision concerns the form this aid should
take:
In kind food aid (consider local, regional or
international purchase; abuses and misuses in war torn
regions);
Cash transfers;
Monetisation.
1.
Emergency and humanitarian assistance: basic
rule for food delivery
A) Food availability
deficit + market failure
Delivery of food commodities
Local procurement
Triangular Transaction
International shipments
1. Emergency and humanitarian assistance: in which cases is
food aid appropriate?
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B) NO FOOD AVAILABILITY DEFICIT
+ MARKET FAILURES
In cases of monopsony, poor
infrastructure, physical insecurity the
possible intervention to address food
insecurity should be:
Local purchase or triangular
transactions (small scale
emergencies) depending on the
quantity of food available and the
access to it.
International shipments (large scale
emergencies)
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C) NO FOOD AVAILABILITY
DEFICIT, NO MARKET FAILURE
Case of urban areas where food
insecurity is mainly due to
unemployment and poverty.
Cash transfers and not food
delivery.
Eg. Bangladesh 1998
1. Emergency and humanitarian assistance some
contradictions.
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International shipment of food should be a measure of last resort (in
the reality it constitutes 90% of food aid flows).
Link to development, local response stimulation (poverty).
EWS track climatic, economic and political indicators but do not
comprise complex market information and analysis on the impact of
food aid.
Nutritional appropriateness: fat, blended foods, therapeutical food
(donors vs. beneficiaries)
PROTECTING ASSETS , REDUCING VULNERABILITY – SAFETY NETS
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Safety Nets aims to protect people against
severe shocks ,
Enable people respond to shocks in such a way
that threats to their long term well being are
minimized,
Enables people recover from these shocks,
As such the objective is to enhance household
resilience to adverse shock
MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS
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ASSETS SMOOTHING : Preservation of
productive assets shocks so that individuals
and households does not fall below the critical
threshold.
RECOVERY CAPACITY : Enables households
and individuals to recover their productive
assets after shocks , as such rising above the
threshold.
ROLE OF SAFETY NETS
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Help recipients move out of chronic poverty
Acts as an insurance needed to provide to
encourage vulnerable populations to choose
higher risk , higher reward livelihood strategies
Enable individuals and households cope with
vulnerability without depleting their stock of
productive assets , enhancing their capacity to
recover
FOOD BASED SAFETY NETS
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Makes sense when and where overall food availability falls short
especially when markets do not function well enough to support
an effective cash based transfer system,
Provision of food as transfer can spare recipients from liquidating
productive assets (livestock,land, small business),
Food Aid works in support of safety nets only where it reduces
participants vulanerability to shocks and protects their broader
portfolio of productive assets,
Role of Food Aid in establishing Safety Nets more limited than its
role in humanitarian emergencies , where the objective is simply
to protect human life.
FUNCTIONAL SAFETY NETS
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DETERMINE : Which asset(s) or asset(s)
category most at risk in the face of acute shock
or chronic condition ( Natural Assets, Physical
Assets, Financial Assets,Social Assets, Human
Assets)
IDENTIFY : Once Assets has been identified ,
flesh out the best means of protecting the
assets at risk, plan for both short and long term
situations.
3) Cargo Nets for asset building
among the chronically poor
Wide range of activities aimed to build assets…
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Roads, schools (public assets)
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Livestock, soil and water conservation
structures (private assets)
….or to improve existing ones:
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Vocational training, agri-production
techniques
Cargo Nets weaknesses
However Cargo Nets are ineffective and quite
inappropriate….main exception:
 Cash resources are unavailable….and food
enables to invest in acquiring productive assets
(equipment, livestock, skills)…either from
increased savings (direct transfer) or from
monetization (indirect)
Cargo Nets weaknesses
All these programs alone seldom achieve the
objective of building assets…
….complementary cash resources are
necessary!
 Again, food aid makes sense only in food
deficits situations (emergencies) as a part of
an overall poverty reduction strategy
Examples: Food-for-Work, Direct Nutritional
Support, School feeding programs, etc…
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4) Monetization
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Non-emergency food aid shipments from
USA
NGOs have come to rely increasingly on this
mechanism to generate cash for other food
security objectives
•Cons: competition with food
exporters of donor countries’ &
very inefficient
•Pros:imperfect but reliable longterm source of cash
Monetization
It can be useful:
 Operation Flood in India, Bangladesh Famine 1974,
Madagascar late 80s
In the long-run, it can generate problems:
 Very inefficient mechanism to generate cash
 Diverts operational staff from more core programming
activities
 Often monetized income lags behind the expenditure
requirements
 Market distortions (food and labour), undermines
production incentives, displace commercial trade
5) Local purchases & triangular
transactions
Often the best solution when local food
availability in proximity (country or
neighbouring countries)of the target group is
adequate (efficient and timeliness)
It also stimulates positive effects by expanding
local production & mrkts
Att: must be balanced vs adverse impact on local
consumers (most vulnerable net foodpurchasing households)
The roles of the main food aid actors:
a) donor governments
The main objective is delinking food aid from
domestic farm policy:
1. Transition to untied food aid: food aid has to be
flexible, not tied to donor restrictions on sourcing,
processing, or shipping;
2. Transition to cash-based food aid: donor
governments should move towards food aid
programs based on cash for purchasing food in or
near the country where food aid is required;
The roles of the main food aid actors:
a) donor governments (2)
3. Phase out sales of food aid: monetized food aid
increases the risks that food aid will discourage food
production by farmers in the recipient country and,
because it is sold on the open market, there is no
guarantee that such food reaches the most vulnerable
people;
4. Impose strict limits on in-kind food aid: sourcing food
aid near the region where the food is needed represents
the most cost-effective ways to source food aid (local
purchases: only about 10% of food aid is procured in
developing countries).
The roles of the main food aid actors:
b) recipient country actors
The main objective is to empower community
based organization in the management of such
activities as:
 Targeting and distribution of food aid
 Warning/monitoring (community based
emergency preparedness)
 Managing community response mechanisms to
crises
→ local actors as important intermediaries
The roles of the main food aid actors:
c) operational agencies
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WFP: multilateral mandate somewhat diminished
because of its dependence on a single donor
contribution (U.S., 47%) provided in the form of food
rather than cash → WFP disposes mainly of a single
resource: food;
International NGOs: implementing partners of WFP
or direct distributors of food aid from donors →
continued reliance on food as the source of
resources (monetization of food aid) is not going to
enable an appropriate kind of programming.
Figure 10-2: Recasting Food Aid Sources, Modes of Distribution and Uses
Current Global Food Aid Regime
Type of Food Aid:
Humanitarian
Project
Program
Share of total
flows
Percentage
~45%
~20%
~35%
Sources
Local/
Triangular
10-20%
~5-10%
Very little
Donor nation markets or stocks
80-90%
90-95%
Almost all
Direct distribution
Almost all
~50%
Almost none
Monetization
Almost none
~50%
Almost all
Humanitarian
(Life protecting)
Safety Nets
(Asset
protecting)
Cargo Nets
(Asset building)
Mode of
distribution
A More Effective Global Food Aid Regime
Type of Food Aid:
Share of total
flows
Percentage
65-75%
10-20%
5-10%
Sources
Local/
Triangular
Where market analysis indicates appropriate
Where market
analysis indicates
appropriate
Where market
analysis indicates
appropriate
Donor nation markets or
stocks
When local purchase/triangular transactions are
inappropriate
When local
purchase/triangular
transactions are
inappropriate
When local
purchase/triangular
transactions are
inappropriate
Direct distribution
Almost all
Almost all
Almost all
Monetization
Only in rare cases (price spike control)
Limited: only in
support of market
development
goals
Limited: only in
support of market
development goals
Mode of
distribution
SUMMARY
The
need to reconceptualize Food Aid is presently compelling
especially , in the face of global food crises. It can be adduced that Food
Aid has been misused for over 50 Years.
 OPERATIONAL LEVEL : Transition from resource – driven intervention
approach to problem - driven approach intervention
POLICY LEVEL : Harmonisation and coordination of Food Aid
programming agencies and organizations to utilize Food Aid as an
effective and functional instrument of long term development and
humanitarian policy intervention and not strictly in response to
emergencies.