Foreign Aid and Consumption Smoothing: Evidence from Global Food Aid

The American electorate has acquired an ingrained prejudice against foreign aid. The public suspects that foreign aid is something the government takes from the poor in a rich country and gives to the wealthy in a poor country. This suspicion— like many of America's populist wisdoms—is the tragic truth in one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh.Only a pittance of international food aid to Bangladesh feeds the starving or destitute. Even in this bumper crop year an estimated 368,000 babies and young children will die due to malnutrition or related diseases. Food aid generally does not reach the poor; 90 per cent of the 1.6 million tons of foreign food aid shipped to Bangladesh this year was used to subsidize a ration system for the middle class.

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A Global Food Crisis

10.1093/oso/9780190228873.003.0016 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Barry Riley

Keyword(s):

Soviet Union ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Food Aid ◽

Food Crisis ◽

Poor Countries ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Production Areas ◽

Global Food ◽

Global Food Crisis

The global food crisis of 1972–74 was the result of unusually poor harvests in many of the world’s major production areas. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa were particularly hard hit and needed to import basic foodstuffs to avert famine. Unfortunately, because of unprecedented purchases by the Soviet Union and decisions by oil-exporting countries to raise prices on oil, poor countries faced higher prices for both food and energy, while the food aid donors found themselves unable to find food aid commodities at affordable prices to send to countries desperately in need. This chapter describes how these events came about, the depth of the problem in the hardest-hit countries, and the nature—and constraints on—the U.S. response to them.

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Where Does the Money Go? Best and Worst Practices in Foreign Aid

The Journal of Economic Perspectives ◽

10.1257/jep.22.2.29 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 29-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 191

Author(s):

William Easterly ◽

Tobias Pfutze

Keyword(s):

Best Practices ◽

Foreign Aid ◽

Best Practice ◽

Technical Assistance ◽

Aid Effectiveness ◽

Food Aid ◽

Limited Information ◽

Different Dimensions ◽

Tied Aid ◽

The Way

This paper does not address the issue of aid effectiveness—that is, the extent to which foreign aid dollars actually achieve their goals—but on “best practices” in the way in which official aid is given, an important component of the wider debate. First we discuss best practice for an ideal aid agency and the difficulties that aid agencies face because they are typically not accountable to their intended beneficiaries. Next we consider the transparency of aid agencies and four additional dimensions of aid practice: specialization, or the degree to which aid is not framgemented among too many donors, too many countries, and too many sectors for each donor); selectivity, or the extent to which aid avoids corrupt autocrats and goes to the poorest countries; use of ineffective aid channels such as tied aid, food aid, and technical assistance; and the overhead costs of aid agencies. We compare 48 aid agencies along these dimensions, distinguishing between bilateral and multilateral ones. Using the admittedly limited information we have, we rank the aid agencies on different dimensions of aid practice and then provide one final comprehensive ranking. We present these results as an illustrative exercise to move the aid discussion forward.

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Food Politics

10.1093/wentk/9780199322398.001.0001 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Robert Paarlberg

Keyword(s):

Urban Agriculture ◽

International Markets ◽

Food Aid ◽

Food Retailing ◽

Food Politics ◽

Food Market ◽

Agriculture And Food ◽

Rich Countries ◽

Global Food ◽

Local Farmers

The politics of food is changing fast. In rich countries, obesity is now a more serious problem than hunger. Consumers once satisfied with cheap and convenient food now want food that is also safe, nutritious, fresh, and grown by local farmers using fewer chemicals. Heavily subsidized and underregulated commercial farmers are facing stronger push back from environmentalists and consumer activists, and food companies are under the microscope. Meanwhile, agricultural success in Asia has spurred income growth and dietary enrichment, but agricultural failure in Africa has left one-third of all citizens undernourished - and the international markets that link these diverse regions together are subject to sudden disruption. The second edition of Food Politics has been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest developments and research on today's global food landscape, including biofuels, the international food market, food aid, obesity, food retailing, urban agriculture, and food safety. The second edition also features an expanded discussion of the links between water, climate change, and food, as well as farming and the environment. New chapters look at livestock, meat and fish and the future of food politics. Paarlberg's book challenges myths and critiques more than a few of today's fashionable beliefs about farming and food. For those ready to have their thinking about food politics informed and also challenged, this is the book to read.

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Globally Securing Food in an Insecure World – Opportunities and Challenges

10.35293/ah.v4i1.3588 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mariam Hussein

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Global Governance ◽

Food Policy ◽

Food Aid ◽

Governance System ◽

Human Right ◽

Governmental Organizations ◽

The Right ◽

Global Food

This paper looks into the necessity of a global governance system for food security from a "humane" side, with a focus on countries and MNCs. It also explores potential mechanisms to drive MNCs involvement in the global governance of food security into a more inclusive path. Furthermore, the paper explores a more sustainable side to globally governing food security. All in all, this paper calls for the reshaping of a global governance system that better matches the root causes of food insecurity, rather than tries to solve hunger with food aid and provision. The solution starts with asking the right questions. The global governance system should adopt a sole human rights framework while addressing food insecurity. It should acknowledge that questions such as “for whose benefit?” is just as important as “how to produce more?”. Although effective, International Governmental Organizations should further consider how global rules affect different people, who will bear the risks, who will get the benefits from changes, who remain disempowered, and whose ability to control is neglected or enhanced. Global food policy should not just be feeding people, but rather feeding them equitably, appropriately, and sustainably. This brings about a new global food regime that’s integrative of the human right to food.

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The (Im)possibilit y of Time Travel: Haiti ’s Pre- and Post-Earthquake Futures

New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids ◽

10.1163/13822373-90002419 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 86 (3-4) ◽

pp. 302-308

Author(s):

Landon Yarrington

Keyword(s):

Foreign Aid ◽

Drug Trafficking ◽

Time Travel ◽

Food Aid ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Christian Missions

Review of:Travesty in Haiti: A True Account of Christian Missions, Orphanages, Fraud, Food Aid and Drug Trafficking [second edition]. Timothy T. Schwartz. Charleston SC: Booksurge, 2010. xlvii + 262 pp. (Paper US$ 15.99)Haiti in the Balance: Why Foreign Aid Has Failed and What We Can Do About It. Terry Buss . Washington DC: Brookings Institute Press, 2008. xvi + 230 pp. (Paper US$ 28.95)Backpacks Full of Hope: The UN Mission in Haiti. Eduardo Aldunate. Waterloo ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010. xx + 230 pp. (Paper US$ 34.95)

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The World Food Conference

10.1093/oso/9780190228873.003.0017 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Barry Riley

Keyword(s):

The United States ◽

Food Prices ◽

Food Aid ◽

World Food ◽

High Food ◽

White House ◽

The World ◽

The Difference ◽

Global Food

Just before leaving the White House to assume his duties as secretary of state, Kissinger alerted top Agriculture officials in Washington that the president was increasingly concerned with the growing world food crisis. Among the responses was word that the American food aid program was not going to be able to meet its global food aid commitments because of the combination of high food prices and budgetary constraints. Shortly thereafter Kissinger publicly called for the convening of a World Food Conference to consider the problem and propose long-term remedies. This chapter describes interagency debates over what the United States should—and should not—promise in the conference. It highlights the difference between domestic agriculture interests, represented by Secretary of Agriculture Butz, foreign policy interests, exemplified by Kissinger, humanitarian concerns, voiced by Senator Humphrey, and the perspective of the new president, Gerald Ford.

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