Yearly Archives: 2007
Local and Regional Procurement of Food Aid in Africa: Impact and Policy Issues
EC policy endorses local and regional procurement of food aid commodities (LRP), a practice that is believed to assist in the development of local agriculture and livelihoods in supplying countries. The research hypothesis for this study was that such procurement of food aid can make a much larger contribution to the economies of developing countries, and poor people in particular, and that policies can be put in place to increase such benefits.
Available literature was reviewed, and case studies were undertaken in Ethiopia and Uganda where combined LRP started in the 1990s and in recent years has been running at over 300,000 tonnes per annum. Available information permits certain conclusions about the impact of LRP, as follows:
- It provides much greater net benefits for rural and urban populations than equivalent expenditure on tied food aid (provided it is competently managed, and the local/regional supply base allows the activity to be developed without major adverse impacts on consumers – where this is not the case imported in-kind food aid from developed countries may sometimes be more appropriate).
- While no systematic assessment has been made of the overall impact of LRP on price stability, several cases can be cited where it has increased price instability. This does not call into question the value of LRP, but points to the need for more flexible funding arrangements, further developing market analysis capabilities, and untying food aid so that LRP, in-kind food and cash support may be combined in a way which has a benign effect on price movements. WFP’s Advance Financing Facility is a positive step in making funding arrangements more flexible.
- The evidence for impact on market efficiency is mixed. Local procurement has led to investment and improved practices among traders supplying food aid, but has not greatly impacted the conduct of the regular grain trade in source countries, or on the quality of grain in that trade. In Uganda, much of the LRP is logistically inefficient, and it has promoted investments in drying and storage plant that are excessively concentrated in Kampala, and poorly located to cope with a scenario of declining food aid quantities.
- LRP is having some positive impact on the development of Ethiopia’s export trade, but in Uganda, LRP has not been organised so as to equip traders – in terms of investments, financing and quality management – to develop an export market that would cushion them in the event of a major reduction in WFP purchases.
- In both countries, food aid grain sales are highly concentrated among a few suppliers. However there is no conclusive evidence that this market concentration is a source of market inefficiency.
- Notwithstanding the strong performance of certain groups, LRP aimed exclusively at producer organisations has proved an inefficient use of resources.
- Local and regional procurement have led to the development of industries for the manufacture of blended food commodities, and diversification into the production of soybeans, notably in Ethiopia.
Food aid agencies can adjust tendering procedures to mitigate certain problems, but in countries where they are involved for the medium or long term, they should consider more comprehensive approaches to market development which leave behind stronger and more efficient structures that will serve the host countries better. To this end, they should work closely with partners seeking to improve the performance of grain markets in areas such as contracting, warehouse receipt systems and exchange trading.
The findings confirm the research hypothesis and the following specific recommendations are made to those concerned with the distribution of food aid:to devote more resources to assessing impact of local purchase on supplying areas; to improve the information base for decision-making; for those still supplying in-kind food aid to untie a large proportion; to take all steps to facilitate timely and effective decisions by local food aid managers; to investigate the scope for ‘food aid pipelines’ in countries where food reserves still exist and function efficiently; to focus on developing existing marketing systems rather than exclusive relationships with producer organisations, and; where food aid is expected to continue at significant levels for several years, to work proactively with partner organisations to establish new market institutions with a view to improving the performance of local and regional markets.
Reversing food insecurity: Linking global commitments to local recovery needs
ABSTRACT
Food insecurity and chronic marginalisation of poor households have been both symptoms and causes of humanitarian crises in the Third World over the past decades. Despite massive international assistance, and extraordinary technological advances, food insecurity and hunger is expanding, engulfing, every year, millions of people. It is puzzling why hunger continues to affect 850 million people worldwide despite commitments from global citizens of high moral and financial standing, world leaders and national authorities to tackle the problem.
The long-term deterioration in livelihoods coupled with civil strife, sharp inequalities in resource endowment and adverse climate are responsible for humanitarian crisis; if current trends continue, food insecurity risks becoming permanent in some regions of Africa, and defying existing framework of humanitarian assistance for sustainable recovery.
The author underscores a missing link between the international desire to ending hunger and poverty and resource allocation for recovery. For communities, it is the inequalities in opportunities and access to resources that have led to marginalisation; neglect that often is the source of armed conflict. In fact, hunger with its attendant political, security and humanitarian implications is one of the global threats of our times and can become a disruptive force of the future. The key to successful food security strategies is an understanding of the community, its resource endowment in a specific local farming system, and link investment decisions to communities and households that will enhance and create conditions to foster growth and resilience. The duration and intensity of investment are crucial factors of success to protect recovery gains from erosion due to recurrent risk and disasters.
Mandating the Protection Cluster with the Responsibility to Protect: A Policy Recommendation Based on the Protection Cluster’s Implementation in South Kivu, DRC
ABSTRACT
This paper will explore how the Protection Cluster, as part of the new United Nations led cluster approach in emergency environments, can serve to implement the international community’s responsibility to protect civilians in the field and will make a policy recommendation to ensure the international community is better able to carry this responsibility out and fulfill it. The paper is divided into five sections: first, tracing the emergence and content of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) framework and its burgeoning acceptance as an international norm; second, the development of the cluster approach and the Protection Cluster as a means for improving the international community’s protection response on the ground; third, a review and analysis of how the implementation of the Protection Cluster on a pilot basis in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has started to implement the R2P framework in the field as well as some challenges it faces in providing adequate protection response; fourth, a policy recommendation to the UN to institutionalize the international community’s responsibility to protect citizens in the field by mandating the Protection Cluster with the responsibility to protect directly according to the R2P framework, with specific actions recommended for a new leadership structure and guidelines to make this a reality; and last, a conclusion on what this policy with the new structure and guidelines could mean, if heeded and instituted, for the international community’s ability to protect citizens in complex emergencies around the world as well as today’s major obstacle hindering this from becoming reality.
Drug Donations in Emergencies, the Sri Lankan Post-tsunami Experience
ABSTRACT
While drug donations can have a great role in humanitarian relief, they can actually be detrimental when provided with no regard to international standards. This paper aims to provide some insight into problems encountered during the process of pharmaceutical assistance in emergencies. It presents outcomes of a study involving secondary and field based research conducted in post-tsunami Sri Lanka. Lessons learned and some proposals for improvement of quality and management of pharmaceutical donations are discussed in the last part of the paper.
After the Wave: A Pilot Project to Develop Mental Health Services in Ampara District, Sri Lanka Post-Tsunami
Part of the JHA Series on Practitioner Analysis and Reflection
ABSTRACT
Some 450 million people worldwide currently suffer from some form of mental disease or brain condition, but almost half the countries in the world have no explicit mental health policy and nearly one-third have no program for coping with the rising tide of brain-related disabilities. There is also a growing evidence base on the implementation of mental health programs in developing countries, and manmade and/or natural disasters often provide opportunities to develop mental health services. This paper discusses the mental health needs that arise from disaster situations and several best practices for addressing these needs.
Humanitarianism and the Muslim World
ABSTRACT
The majority of those receiving humanitarian assistance worldwide are Muslim. This simple fact has remained insufficiently examined, although its significance is evident and growing. The paper explores the issue through five lines of inquiry. Who are the Muslim clients of the humanitarian enterprise and what do they want? Are the hungry poor dangerous? Can humanitarian assistance be an effective instrument of policy? How important is it as a resource transfer? How well has the humanitarian enterprise interpreted the threat from Muslim extremists? The paper underlines four characteristics of humanitarian assistance that are often overlooked: that its clients are preponderantly Muslim; its resources mainly food; that its implementation takes place in a resistant medium, and that the international humanitarian enterprise is overwhelmingly Western in style.
Toward an Anthropology of Humanitarianism
ABSTRACT
Anthropologists have only recently begun to address humanitarianism directly in their research. In this paper, I argue that an emerging anthropology of humanitarianism can draw from work in related areas, including development and refugee studies. Anthropologists will also benefit from work in fields such as history and policy that have addressed issues of humanitarianism. Many of the issues in this domain, including governance, assistance, inequality, and the social dynamics of aid are central preoccupations for anthropologists. The data they obtain through qualitative research and in-depth fieldwork will contribute focused perspectives and insights to a field where broad generalizations and macro-level perspectives have often eclipsed the local realities of and specific responses to humanitarian activities and discourses.