Feeding a Hungry World: A Vision for Food Aid in the 21st Century

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At the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996, 186 nations came together and pledged to provide the moral and political leadership needed to alleviate extreme hunger and malnutrition. WFS participant countries pledged to reduce by half the number of undernourished people in the world. Nearly 10 years on, there has been minimal progress toward this historic goal. Globally, undernourishment has declined by 3 percent.

That means that there are presently more than 850 million people who do not have enough food to eat and 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 a day. And in sub-Saharan Africa the situation has actually worsened since the WFS. There, the combination of political unrest, conflict, drought and disease – principally AIDS – and continued high population growth adds up to a grim scenario for the coming years.

As countries rich and poor take stock of these tasks, debate continues about the kinds of resources and efforts that will best achieve these goals and the levels required. Part of this debate has focused on food aid. Over the past 50 years, food aid has been one of the principal resources deployed in the effort to end hunger, and a number of donor countries, the United States prominent among them, have channeled billions of dollars' worth of food to developing countries.

This report focuses on the benefits and costs of food aid and set forth recommendations for making food aid more efficient and effective. It is an opportune moment to reflect on how food aid programs, those of the United States in particular, may be strengthened to achieve hunger and poverty reduction more effectively. U.S. food aid programs, authorized through the federal farm bill, are on track to be renegotiated in 2007. The United States is also actively engaged in World Trade Organization (WTO) trade negotiations, which will very likely affect food aid practices. Through the dual avenues of the U.S. farm bill and WTO negotiations, it should be possible to improve developing countries' prospects for food security and sustainable development while strengthening donor support for effective food aid programs.