Chapter 6


Box 6.1: Food Aid The Evolution of Concepts, Policies and Mechanisms

The evolution of food aid from essentially a surplus disposal programme of the early 1950s has been
accompanied by a number of important changes conceptual, political and institutional. In the process,
practices and procedures for food aid have become increasingly complex, involving about twenty-five
countries as providers and over a hundred as recipient.

The first discussion of food aid in an international forum can be traced back to the Seventh Session of FAO
Conference in November 1958. Following its review of the situation, the Conference instructed the Committee
on Commodity Problems to consider: (i) the most suitable means of disposing of surpluses; (ii) the principles
which should be observed in order that the disposal of surpluses be made without harmful interference with
normal patterns of production and international trade; and (iii) the strengthening of intergovernmental
machinery for consultations on these matters.

The Conference's instructions were implemented on the basis of a pioneering FAO study: "Disposal of
Agricultural Surpluses" (FAO Commodity Policy Studies No. 5, 1954). This study can be considered as a first
major step in the conceptual evolution of food aid towards its eventual food security role. It launched new
ideas for utilising food surpluses in food-for-work projects, for food stabilisation purposes, in special feeding
programmes for the most vulnerable target groups, in subsidized new uses (e.g. reconstituted milk), thus
anticipating not only the whole project approach to food aid as applied to this day, especially in multilateral
food aid transactions, but also the possibilities offered by food aid to strengthen food security. Closely related.
in timing and significance, was another important FAO study, concerning "Uses of Agricultural Surpluses for
Finance Economic Development in Under-Developed Countries" (FAO Commodity Policy Studies No. 6,
1959). Its contribution to the evolution of food aid concept and programme consisted in a systematic
distinction drawn for the first time between food assistance for projects both for development and welfare and
support for general development programmes. It also stressed the role of food aid as additional capital to
finance economic development, including it balance of payments and budgetary support roles.

The establishment of the World Food Programme in 1961 marked the beginning of multilateral food aid. The
next milestone was the first Food Aid Convention (FAC) in 1967 as one of the two legal instruments the other
being the Wheat Trade Convention which constituted the International Grains Agreement, 1967. As a result
of FAC 1967, a number of governments for the first time legally bound themselves to provide a minimum
specific quantities of food aid in cereals, individual shares having been negotiated in the GATT Kennedy
Round of trade negotiations. Also for the first time the nineteen participants in the Convention included grain
importing countries as food aid donors. The Convention was re-negotiated in 1971 and in 1980, when the
minimum guaranteed level was raised to 7.6 million tons. The number of donors also rose to 22 and the cereal
coverage was extended to rice.

Another major step in the evolution of food aid was constituted by the decisions and recommendations of the
World Food Conference in 1974. In particular, the Conference decided to establish the Committee on Food Aid
Policies and Programmes (CFA) and the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS). In addition, the
World Food Conference recommended the acceptance by all donor countries of the concept of forward
planning of food aid and of a global food aid target of 10 million tons of cereals. It also suggested the need for
raising the share of food aid channelled through WFP, the grant component of the bilateral food aid
programmes, and the cash resources available for commodity purchases from developing countries. The
Conference recommended measures for meeting international food emergency requirements in order
particularly to enhance WFP's capacity to render speedy assistance in emergencies. The latter recommendation
led to the establishment of the International Emergency Food Reserve (IEFR) by the UN General Assembly in
September 1975, with a minimum target of 500 000 tons of cereals, placed at the disposal of WFP. In 1979,
the CFA recommended Guidelines and Criteria for Food Aid considered applicable to the food aid programmes
and policies of bilateral as well as multilateral donors. These were intended to enable food aid to make a more
effective contribution to the solution of the food problem of developing countries.

The link between surplus disposal and food aid has not been totally severed. As a result, however, of the
conceptual innovations pioneered since the beginning of food aid as a surplus disposal programme, bilateral
food aid policies have generally become increasingly oriented towards economic and social objectives and an
increasing proportion of food aid is now being channelled multilaterally. Source: FAO, Committee on World
Food Security, CFS: 85/3 Add. 2, February 1985


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