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Submission of Written Evidence by the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich to the House of Commons International Development Committee
Inquiry into Humanitarian Response to Natural Disasters
Relevance This submission relates to the Issue of Development and Humanitarian Assistance. Specifically it addresses the questions 'Can the interaction between development work and humanitarian assistance be improved?' and 'How appropriate is the balance between donor spending on immediate relief work and longer term reconstruction and development?'.
It also relates to the Issue of Vulnerability and Disaster Preparedness. Specifically it addresses the question 'Has an appropriate balance been found between investment in disaster preparedness and disaster response?
Development Impact of Local and Regional Procurement of Food Aid
Background
1. The Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich has a long history of working with food aid agencies and donors, e.g. World Food Programme (WFP), USAID, EC, DFID and NGOs dating back to the 1970s. It has prepared several editions of staff handbooks on food aid commodity management for WFP, provided practical training in the field, and continues to provide technical backstopping and advice on food aid commodity and supply chain management on a day-to-day basis. NRI staff have extensive practical first-hand field experience of food aid procurement, supply chain management and delivery.
2. Many food aid consignments are in the form of tied aid, i.e. donated in-kind, the food aid being produced in the donor country. Where the aid is not tied, but provided simply as funding, the food aid agency has options to procure locally in surplus areas within the recipient country or regionally in neighbouring countries where there is a surplus.
3. EC Council Regulation No. 1292/96, dealing with food aid policy, food aid management, and special operations in support of food security, endorses the growing practice of food aid procurement within the benefiting country or from a neighbouring country. This practice is widely believed to assist in the development of local agriculture and livelihoods in the source countries. It can also be expected to contribute to the development of more transparent and efficient domestic and regional grain marketing systems in the countries concerned, with positive impacts on rural incomes.
4. Our extensive field experiences in Africa and Asia prompted us to ask the question as to whether the expected development benefits of local and regional procurement could be demonstrated and evaluated. A preliminary study undertaken by NRI in Sudan in 2003 on behalf of EuronAid (an operational NGO food security network, www.euronaid.net) revealed that whilst the sourcing of food aid from third world countries certainly could be expected to have development benefits for the agri-business systems of the supplying economies, there was very little hard evidence to support the rationale behind this significant pillar of EC policy.
5. A further study in Ethiopia and Uganda funded by DFID's EC-PREP Programme (2004-2005), and extensive reviews of published and grey literature, confirmed the earlier indications that this was an under-researched and under-documented subject. There is a lack of information because although WFP and food aid NGOs typically undertake impact assessments in areas where food aid is distributed, they very rarely examine the impact resulting from the sourcing of food aid in third world agricultural systems in neighbouring countries or within the recipient country. The unpublished report on the EC-PREP study is annexed to this submission.
6. Nevertheless, it was clear from the limited information available from the two studies that local and regional procurement of food aid can have a range of positive impacts on the development of the agricultural and agri-business systems in the source economies, and that the EC policy is justified. These development benefits do not accrue from inter continental shipments of food aid from northern producing countries. Types of development impact identified include:
o Promoting agricultural food production o Encouraging new entrants to the grain trade o Improving food quality o Stimulating regional trade o Promoting agro-industry and food processing o Promoting rural employment
Issues
7. Food aid takes place in a highly politicised environment. The USA strongly favours shipping US-grown food aid commodities. DFID is understood to favour local and regional procurement, in common with most northern European countries, France being the main exception because it still supplies French-grown food aid commodities.
8. The World Food Programme, for which the USA is the most substantial donor, favours local and regional procurement on grounds of cost effectiveness and faster delivery over commodities shipped inter-continentally. For these reasons it welcomes receipt of untied donor funding that it can use for this purpose. However, it does not normally give a high priority to the potential developmental contributions accruing to local and regional supplying economies. Substantial quantities of food aid delivered by WFP are supplied in kind as tied aid.
9. Local and regional procurement offers the possibility for food aid procurement to make positive development impact in the recipient and neighbouring countries. Because of the self-selecting nature of food aid activities there is every reason to believe this type of procurement would contribute to the reduction of rural poverty.
10. There is a growing perception among the public and international donors that provision of food is a never ending process. Signs of food aid fatigue are apparent. However, if more food aid were to be procured in local and regional agricultural economies it could procure more food aid with the same funds by reducing international transport and handling costs, it would provide substantial investment into those economies, it would strengthen market development, and put more money into the rural economies.
11. If it is procured locally or regionally, "food aid should be regarded as an investment tool for rural development rather than as only a relief tool to meet the short-term needs of hungry people".
Requests to the International Development Committee
12. That the Government take advantage of the UK's lead in this internationally important aspect of food aid policy to actively promote the significance of the development benefits expected to arise from the provision of untied aid for the local and regional procurement of food aid.
13. That the Government uses its influence in Brussels to ensure that the provisions of EC Council Regulation No.1292/96 relating to local and regional procurement of food aid are continued and possibly strengthened.
14. That the Government specifically uses its influence with WFP, to create a greater awareness of the development aspects that can be expected to accrue from local and regional procurement, and to request that WFP gives this aspect of food aid greater priority.
15. That the Government informs British food aid NGOs of the development potential expected to arise from local and regional procurement of food aid, and urges them to undertake development impact assessments in the source economies.
16. That the Government funds, or encourages other donors to fund, further research and evaluation of existing development impacts. A greater understanding of the impacts could offer management opportunities for optimising the positive contributions to the rural communities. Support will be required in the areas of research and extension, post harvest agricultural technology, technology transfer, and financing instruments such as warehouse receipts.
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