Food Aid at a Crossroads: The Shared Challenge NGOs Face

27 Pages Posted: 27 Jun 2008

See all articles by Christopher B. Barrett

Christopher B. Barrett

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management

Date Written: April 2005

Abstract

Food aid stands at a crossroads today. Major policy decisions will be made in the coming year as to the direction food aid will follow for the next decade or more. NGO leaders need to decide soon how to engage these debates. If the NGOs fail to step forward on these imminent, major decisions, not only will they miss a substantial opportunity to shape their own future role in food aid operations, they risk abdicating the historic responsibility of development and humanitarian agencies to ensure the poor's access to adequate food. Thus far, the NGO community has been largely and noticeably silent.

How has food aid reached this crossroads, with key decisions to be made amid contradictory indicators of the health of the current system and the NGOs struggling to join the debate? What key issues lie ahead and what key next steps must NGO executives take at this conjunctural moment, taking advantage of emerging opportunities and paying heed to ever-present risks? This background paper focuses on these two topics. First, it describes the persistent reality of donororiented food aid and slow, incomplete movement towards a recipient-oriented system. Then it lays out the three-part shared challenge the NGOs face:

(1) to articulate a shared vision as to how food aid fits into a strategy to reduce poverty and to fulfill and protect human rights, (2) to coordinate at an operational level in food aid management, and (3) to cooperate at the strategic level in the realm of policy advocacy related to food aid. NGOs must work together in these three parallel activities. No single NGO has much incentive to seriously rethink, much less to change its food aid operations or mount a significant advocacy effort for pro-poor reform of food aid programming without the cooperation of other NGOs. If, however, the NGOs can move as a bloc to push for real reform of food aid and development assistance more generally, they could be a potent force for a reallocation of resources that would enhance, not constrain, the resource base for fighting poverty and protecting human rights.

Suggested Citation

Barrett, Christopher B., Food Aid at a Crossroads: The Shared Challenge NGOs Face (April 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1142303 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1142303

Christopher B. Barrett (Contact Author)

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management ( email )

315 Warren Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-7801
United States
607-255-4489 (Phone)
607-255-9984 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://aem.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/cbb2/

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