Food Aid
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Early warning systems help predict natural disasters and have improved the international communities’ ability to spot, prepare for and respond to impending food crises. But more can and should be done to prevent hunger during such emergencies. To get there, emergency food aid and its delivery network need continued support and strengthening (Hunger Report 2004: Side Bar: Page 86).
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Nutrition Safety Net
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Development specialists agree that nutrition must be placed at the heart of national poverty reduction efforts. A myriad of planning tools exist to help countries address poverty and food security. One of the most comprehensive is the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), jointly administered by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund….As the process of implementing and revising these plans proceeds, national leaders should work to raise the profile of nutrition and its importance to the success of poverty-reduction efforts….Finding solutions will mean mainstreaming nutrition concerns into the development agenda. (Hunger Report 2006, Page 107) Cross Reference: Food Security and Development Assistance
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A comprehensive strategy must include the establishment of nutrition safety nets. Just as safety nets literally catch people if they fall, nutrition safety nets are intended to lessen the impact of poverty on human health and nutrition. Safety net programming can ensure that good health and nutrition are within reach of everyone….Safety nets have the additional benefit of relieving some of the burden associated with poverty, especially hunger. The immediate benefit of nutrition safety nets is that they help to ensure adequate nutrition for all, but they also allow people to use their resources and energy to procure other basic necessities. In other words, safety nets provide a foundation upon which people living in poverty can work to improve their situation. For the world’s poor, nutrition safety nets are critical to spurring development. Governments—whether rich or poor—have responsibility to try to provide all citizens with access to nutritious foods (Hunger Report 2006, Page 104 and 106)
Emergency Food Aid
- Provide more untied resources to meet the emergency food needs of people all over the world—Tied aid earmarked for particular crisis situations limits the ability of organizations to effectively deliver food. The United States should provide a larger share of its emergency food aid budget as untied aid so it can be used to purchase food when and where it is most needed (Hunger Report 2006, Page 129)
- It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that they have the tools and resources to make it happen…countries rich and poor, must work together to develop effective strategies to ensure that everyone is guaranteed the right to food (Hunger Report 2006, Page 128 and 129)
- “Getting Food Aid to Work More Effectively”—One new proposal is to create an international famine fund…the fund could be tapped as needed without having to rely on formal appeals…the fund could be a combination of cash and commodities, with the commodities prepositioned for rapid response…the key benefit would be an improved capacity for timely response to emergency food needs (Hunger Report 2006, Page 119)
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