Below are two key policy recommendation that Agdes has been advocating for a while. Thanks to The Chicago Council on Global Affairs for preparing the summary below and providing the leadership to support these important reforms.
The 2012 US Agriculture & Food Policy
Panel and 2009 Global Agricultural Development Leaders Group issued the following recommendations:
Increase funding for local purchase of food aid
US food aid would be more efficient and cost effective if
the US transitioned to a more cash-based food aid system except in
certain
emergency situations in which a food donation is required. A cash-based
food aid system is a speedier
and more cost-efficient way to reach beneficiaries in developing
countries than
shipping U.S.-grown food to low-income countries. Cash can also be
distributed
rapidly even to remote locations.
Local and regional purchases of food aid reduce delivery time by an
average of 13.8 weeks, or by more than half the current delivery method,
while stimulating agricultural development. The transaction costs of a
cash-based system are also lower
than shipping food aid. According
to the FAO, approximately one-third of the total funds allocated for
emergency
food aid is spent on transportation costs. Moreover, a cash-based
system will allow local and regional
purchases of food and stimulate local markets without artificially
lowering
prices.
The United States is the only aid donor that still gives food in-kind
rather than cash. Donation of U.S.-purchased food aid should
continue only when local supplies are inadequate or nutritionally dense
foods
are not readily available. These
instances could include donations to refugee camps in famine areas or
aid
following natural disasters.
Scale down the monetization of food aid
Both task forces also recommended that the United States
should scale down the practice of monetization. The loss to taxpayers is huge considering the overhead
costs, and the practice contradicts efforts to eliminate wasteful government
spending. The 2011 GAO report on
reducing duplication in government programs and saving tax dollars found that
the process of using cash to procure, ship, and sell commodities costs $219
million out of total budget of $722 million over a three-year period. Almost 30 percent of the funds
appropriated for development projects did not reach intended recipients due to
the monetization process.
The GAO report concludes that monetization “cannot be as efficient as a
standard development program which provides cash grants directly to
implementing partners.”
Additionally, the sale of U.S. goods can drive down local market prices
and discourage local food production. Groups recommended that the US government transfer
funds directly to nongovernmental organizations to conduct their development
programs overseas.
About the task forces
The 2012 US Agriculture and Food Policy
Panel was a bi-partisan task force led by Catherine Bertini, former executive
director, UN World Food Program; August Schumacher Jr., former undersecretary
of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, US Department of
Agriculture; and Robert L. Thompson, professor emeritus of Agricultural Policy,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The panel’s final statement, released in June 2012,
included recommendations for how to modernize US food and farm policy to meet
the production, nutrition, and environmental challenges of the future.
The 2009 Global Agricultural Development
Leaders Group was a bi-partisan task force led by Catherine Bertini and Dan Glickman,
former secretary, US Department of Agriculture. The group released recommendations in February 2009 laying
out the opportunities and benefits of greater US investment in agricultural
development in Africa and South Asia as a means to alleviate global poverty and
hunger and increase global food production.
More information:
- U.S. Agriculture and Nutrition Policy Statement: Transforming American Food and Agriculture Policy (PDF), June 2012
- U.S. Monetization Policy: Recommendations for Improvement (PDF), December 2009
- Renewing American Leadership in the Fight Against Hunger and Poverty (PDF), February 2009