Chapter 6


* Timely and co-ordinated response to food shortages;
* Allocation of funds for local purchases or commercial food imports;
* Promotion of triangular transactions;
* Provision of complementary financial and technical assistance.

Other approaches to external assistance, apart from food aid, and their relevance for food
security are discussed in the following sections.

3. International Development Co-operation and Food Security

3.1 Technical assistance

Technical assistance refers to know-how and material transfers in support of economic and
social development. In contrast (and complementary) to food aid which primarily has a short-
term perspective in alleviating transitory food security, technical assistance can play a highly
important role in mitigating the causes of transitory as well as chronic food-insecurity, by
improving the basis for sustainable development. Technical assistance can also provide useful
complementary resources to food aid projects and make them more effective.

Technical assistance for food security is usually considered as an instrument to accelerate
agricultural development and to increase food production, hence to address the supply side of
the food system. This refers to material and/or manpower inputs in potentially all spheres of
agricultural and rural development, from research, training and extension, through input
supply, irrigation and mechanisation, up to processing, storage and marketing. Reference is
made to section 2 of Chapter 5.

Ideally, external technical assistance contributes to government policies and local initiatives
in cases where the available technical know-how and/or capacities are inadequate,
insufficient, and form a major constraint to tackling specific problems or to making a more
effective and efficient use of exiting potentials. This applies, in principle, to all issues listed
in Table 5.1, Chapter 5, and specifically to those measures benefiting vulnerable target
groups.

Technical assistance may be provided by bilateral, multilateral or private donors, on a grant
or credit basis, and may be channelled through national governmental and non-governmental
institutions at central or local levels, or through foreign implementing agencies. An example
of a new recent approach to multilateral technical assistance, specifically aimed at enhancing
food security through production improvements, is FAO's "Special Programme on Food
Production for Food Security in Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs)" (see
Box 6.5).


- 240 -