1HEGR4IN

THE DILEMMA OF PROJECT FOOD AID

by Tony Jackson with Deborah Eade
 C O M 5-99-
3
'I 313.
First published in 1982
OXFAM 1982

MEDJCAL v
.! 2 7 4 8 A I V "' v ;:.--,

ISBN 0 85598 063 X

Printed by OXFAM Print Room

This book converted to digital file in 2010

Published by OXFAM, 274 Banbury Road,

Oxford 0X2 7DZ.
 34.3-

Foreword by Director General of Oxfam iii

Preface iv
1. PROJECT FOOD AID: An Irreplaceable Tool for Development? 1
2. FOOD AID FOR DISASTER RELIEF AND REFUGEES 7
When is Food Aid Needed?
What Kind of Food?
How Should Food Aid be Distributed?
When Should Relief Food Aid Stop?
How is Food Aid Released for Disaster Relief and Refugee Feeding?
Conclusions
3. FOOD-FOR-WORK 23
Public Works
Community Development
Resettlement Projects
Conclusions
4. FOOD AID AND MOTHER-CHILD HEALTH PROGRAMMES 41
Supplementary Feeding and Nutritional Improvement
Targeting Food Aid Through MCH
Nutrition Education
5. SCHOOL AND OTHER INSTITUTIONAL FEEDING 57
Conclusions
6. THE COST OF PROJECT FOOD AID 65
Conclusions
7. THE MANAGEMENT OF FOOD AID 73
Logistical Problems
Targeting and Monitoring
The Conceptual Problem: Programme Objectives and
Evaluations
Conclusions
8. PROJECT FOOD AID AS COMPETITION WITH LOCAL FOOD 85
PRODUCTION
Taking Buyers Out of the Market
Drawing People Away from Agricultural Work
Competition for Resources
Conclusions
9. CONCLUSIONS 91
References 94
Appendix 121
Bibliography 127
/4CKNCWLEDGE/MENTS
So many people have helped me bring out this book that it is impossible to
thank them all by name. Indeed some of them in Europe, the United States and
in certain developing countries have asked to remain anonymous.
My thanks go to them and the following: James Boyce and Betsy Hartmann
whose friendship and knowledge of the subject kept me going they also came
up with the title; Elaine Edgcomb, Karen Funk and Helena Stalson who were a
constant help and made me feel this was all worthwhile; Robert Gersony and Jo
and Max Froman without whom there would be no report; Mary Day Kent,
Steve Blythe, Paul Ensor, Carolyn Rhodes, Otto Matzke, Edward Clay, Julius
Holt and Jane Pryer who all played important roles at various times; Brenda
Parsons who spent many hours voluntarily typing for me in Boston; George Ann
Potter for all her help and advice during my trip to Haiti and the Dominican Re-
public, and Laura Ziegler who worked on this project as a volunteer for six
months and carried it along at crucial stages.
I owe OXFAM-America and its staff a great debt of gratitude for many ser-
vices including their splendid hospitality while I did the early research.
Field workers provided much of my understanding about food aid and
among them I would particularly like to mention Roland Bunch, Maria Colemont,
Robert Grose, Jon Rohde and Denice Williams.
Officials from AID, CARE, Caritas, CRS, CWS, the EEC, FAO and WFP spent
hours answering my questions and showed lots of kindness and patience towards
me. I welcome this opportunity to thank them pubh'cly. Staff of the American
Friends Service Committee, the Mennonite Central Committee and World
Neighbors also helped me to understand the issues as did members of Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Comments on various drafts were received and appreciated from many,
among them Siegfried Bethke, Jonathan Fryer, Roger Hay, Pip Leitch, Simon
Maxwell, Hans Singer, Alan Taylor, Charles Weitz and members of OXFAM
advisory panels and staff, while Deborah Eade helped clarify my thinking and
put it into Queen's English. The improvements are theirs; the deficiencies and
responsibility are mine.
My colleagues in OXFAM both here and overseas were an unfailing source of
encouragement and advice and the typing pool dealt efficiently and willingly
with hundreds of pages of drafts. Finally Anthony Hawkins and Laura Hamilton
helped proof-read the entire text.
My thanks to you all.
FOREWORD

S
ome 90,000 of our fellow human beings die every day from starvation
or malnutrition. Behind that obscene statistic lies infinite human suffer-
ing and tragedy. Together with many other agencies, OXFAM has a
long record of helping thousands of the people who face this frighten-
ing prospect. This time-honoured work represents part of our contribution to
the relief of human suffering, which remains the centrepiece of our terms of
reference. OXFAM will continue to make that kind of response wherever we can.
It is clear, however, that in certain areas of work the indiscriminate or uncon-
trolled distribution of food aid can do far more harm than good.
This book tries to identify more clearly the issues at the centre of the dilemma.
We draw on experiences from OXFAM's own field programme, together with
those of other agencies, both governmental and non-governmental. Our purpose
is to stimulate debate and discussion, leading we hope, to better planning and
closer cooperation between agencies. Ultimately we all seek to help to create
conditions in which no one on this planet need die of starvation or malnutrition.
Our analysis does not focus on government-to-government bulk supplies of
food aid at concessionary rates. We have limited ourselves to food aid for dis-
aster relief, and especially for development programmes such as food-for-work,
mother and child health, and school feeding programmes. The conclusions we
reach are disturbing. They pose a challenge to all of us.
The principle author of our study, and the person mainly responsible for
the analysis, is Tony Jackson, whom I invited to make an investigation of project
food aid and the problems we had encountered first in Guatemala after the 1976
earthquake and then further afield. This included time spent in the USA, re-
searching the subject, working in consultation with relevant offices of the US
Government, exchanging information with American-based agencies and then,
later, repeating a similar pattern of investigation in Europe.
Throughout his investigation Tony Jackson has had direct access to details
of the whole of OXFAM's overseas programme covering over 80 countries in the
Third World. He has also received substantial and willing cooperation from many
sister voluntary agencies in North America, Europe and the Third World.
He has been ably assisted, in particular, by Deborah Eade, Ken Westgate and
Suzanne Blumhardt, all OXFAM staff members.
The views expressed in this analysis do not necessarily represent the final posi-
tion of OXFAM in respect of every issue discussed, but may be taken as stating
the broad thrust of our considered judgement in this difficult, but vitally import-
ant, field of human endeavour. Our intention is to stimulate debate leading to
dynamic action in favour of the hungry and distressed.

Brian W. Walker
Director General

in
PREFACE
M Jk y interest in food aid began after the earthquake in Guatemala in
M% M% 1976. On joining OXFAM there, my first job was to buy items of
M ^M I immediate necessity: some medical goods, then salt and sugar,
J W I coffee and cal (lime used for making tortillas). After ten days or
so OXFAM stopped this type of first-aid assistance and, in common with most
other agencies, began planning how to help people rebuild their houses.
At the time of the disaster there had just been a record harvest in Guatemala.
Despite it, vast quantities of food aid were brought in from the United States,
causing a variety of negative effects. I became interested in trying to find out
why this happened and I talked with many of those involved in the decision to
import the food aid. One day a field worker from one of the food agencies told
me that what I had learnt up till then about food aid was 'just the tip of the
iceberg' and claimed that the Guatemala experience was no mere anomaly. I
decided to look further into the matter and since 1976 have visited food aid pro-
jects in the Caribbean and Peru, read hundreds of reports and interviewed or
been in correspondence with scores of people dealing with food aid in countries
all over the world.
One point quickly became clear. While much had been written on the large
bulk deliveries of food aid provided on a government-to-government basis, little
was commonly known about food aid used in programmes such as food-for-work,
mother-child health and school feeding, called collectively 'project food aid'.
Indeed it seemed to be assumed by policy makers that this approach was work-
ing well and that more food aid should be used to support it. Given that there
were in fact many reports calling this assumption into question, I felt that a
book looking at the last 25 years of experience with project food aid might fill
an important gap.
The result is clearly a polemic. This proved inevitable after my own experi-
ences with food aid and after reading so many reports and letters and listening
to the accounts of field workers, all full of woeful descriptions about the impact
of the food upon poor communities.
I have incorporated into the text as many comments from the specialists as
possible in order to let readers see what helped bring me to my own conclusions.
I have tried to use the quotations to illustrate the point under discussion or
to summarise the reports from which they are taken. I have also tried to select
quotations without taking them out of context and believe that they fairly reflect
the views of those quoted.
In summary,I have come to conclude that food aid is best used for refugees
and in emergencies when food itself is short. Most large scale programmes to use
project food aid for development have proved ineffective either because they
simply do not work or because more locally suitable and often cheaper methods
exist. What follows therefore is not just a description of bureaucratic inefficency
that could easily be put right, nor a suggestion that OXFAM or I could use food
aid on this scale any better in non-disaster times. Nor is the report an attempt to

IV
underestimate the administrative difficulties posed by food aid. Just making the
necessary arrangements to get the food to the right place at the right time is a
major challenge; to use it for development after that adds another complex set
of difficulties rarely overcome.
The report tries to describe what happens to food aid when it arrives in the
recipient country. As such it does not aim to assess donor motivations, such as
surplus disposal or the political reasons for food aid. These aspects have been
thoroughly examined in other works referred to in the bibliography and, after all,
if food aid did improve the lives of the poor, it would be churlish to criticise it
for impurity of motive.
OXFAM's experience over the years with food aid is instructive. When it was
founded in 1942, it was in order to send food and medical supplies to children
in war-torn Greece. Even in the 1950s providing food, or supporting other agencies
that did so, was one of its primary tasks. By the early sixties, however, Oxfam
realised that the need for this type of programme had greatly diminished and
that a longer-term development approach, not food distribution, was required if
the condition of the poor was to be improved.Over the last few years OXFAM
has received many expressions of concern from its own field staff and others
about the negative effects caused by food programmes.
It is against this personal and institutional background that Against the
Grain has been written. It examines reports and evaluations about food aid
many of them from food agencies themselves and provides a forum for field
workers, whose views have up to now gone largely unheeded. The report does
not pretend to be the last word on the subject but aims to open up a debate
long stifled as to when and how project food aid can best be used and when it
may do more harm than good.

Tony Jackson
April 1982

Note: Throughout this study $ = United States dollars.

The Third World's problems are often not due to lack of food. Even in disasters
there may be food available locally. When an earthquake struck Guatemala
farmers were enjoying a bumper harvest.

VI
 PROJECT
FOOD
A\D
PROJECT FOOD AID: AN IRREPLACEABLE TOOL FOR DEVELOPMENT?

E very year well over 1,000,000,000 worth of food aid is sent to developing
countries, mainly from the United States (US), the European Economic
Community (EEC), Australia, Canada and Japan. (i) Approximately 70% of this
is given or sold on concessional terms to Third World governments. (2) They
usually sell it and use the proceeds from the sales to supplement their budgets:
strictly speaking this is not food aid, but a form of government budgetary sup-
port. These government-to-government transactions have given rise to frequent,
sometimes bitter, criticism, but they are not the subject of this report. By con-
trast, the remaining 30% of the food is designed to be distributed free of charge
to the poor, either through long-term development projects or in relief operations
after disasters and for refugee feeding. This is called project food aid, the effects
of which will be examined in this report.
The kinds of projects which might be supported by this use of food aid range
from those aimed at increasing local food production such as land improvement
schemes where food is used as a form of wages for paying the workers to nutri-
tion programmes involving mothers and their children where food supplements
are distributed. In 1979 there were over 60,000,000 people receiving project food
aid from the US alone. (3) Most project food aid is channelled through the World
Food Programme (WFP) and the two major US voluntary agencies, CARE (Co-
operative for American Relief Everywhere) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
(See Appendix for thumbnail sketches of the donors.)
Whatever the obvious limitations of government-to-government aid, project
food aid has generally been assumed to be working well and in the direct inter-
ests of the poor. Its overtly humanitarian functions have allowed it to go un-
criticised and the fact that it is largely disbursed through the United Nations
(UN) and voluntary agencies for 'development' purposes has served almost as a
talisman against public criticism. Of course, it is admitted, project food aid has
had its problems some of it inevitably goes astray; it requires a considerable
degree of logistic support and administrative control, and it is not easy to ensure
that it arrives on time and in the right quantities. But such problems are usually
dismissed as incidental to the food itself, administrative difficulties that will
disappear once the project is properly under way.
Official confidence in project food aid is expressed in various ways. In 1975
the US Congress enacted a requirement that a certain minimum amount of food
aid had to go each year under Title II of Public Law (PL) 480, that part of the
law covering project food aid. (See Appendix for more details on PL 480.)
By 1982, 1,700,000 metric tons must by law be distributed this way. (4) Fre-
quent appeals by the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) have been made to ask the international community to donate more food
through WFP, described on one occasion as follows:
"Fully experienced and efficiently managed, WFP is the instru-
ment par excellence for shipping food aid; in addition, it is an
irreplaceable tool for development because 80 percent of its
resources is allocated to development projects." (5)
likewise the Brandt Commission report wholly endorses the idea of food aid for
development:
"Food aid should be increased and linked to employment pro-
motion and agricultural programmes and projects without
weakening incentives to food production." (6)
The concept of using food as a tool for development is superficially attractive,
and receives widespread public support. Yet over the years there have been many
criticisms made of it. Reports from numerous countries and projects have ques-
tioned the efficacy of project food aid. These disquieting reports have been noted,
but general principles have largely not been drawn from them. In this book it is
argued that the cumulative evidence points to the irresistible conclusion that
large scale project food aid is an inherently inappropriate means of promoting
development. In the 25 or so years it has been used, project food aid has in fact
fallen disappointingly short of the development goals it has been set. Year after
year, independent and commissioned evaluations have failed to find evidence of
an improvement proportional to the vast amounts of food, money and human
effort which have been expended.
In 1979, after field evaluations in six countries (Ghana, Tanzania, India, Sri
Lanka, the Dominican Republic and Peru), the General Accounting Office of the
Government of the US submitted a report to Congress stating that "fundamental
changes are needed in the way title II [project food aid] is planned, programed,
and administered at the country level", so calling for a complete overhaul of the
policies governing project food aid. (?)
In 1980 a report to the Nordic Ministerial Council stated that "the whole issue
of food aid remains an area of controversy, ambiguity and disorder". (8) hi the
same year, a working document prepared for the Committee on Development and
Cooperation of the European Parliament, stated that the EEC food aid policy was
"an inefficient way of distributing European surplus production
to the poor countries, associated with high costs, countless
mishaps, delays, wrangling over responsibility and bureaucratic
obstacles; there is scarcely any control over how it works and
what effects it achieves. . . Any attempt to hold it up to
scrutiny leads to a radically different suggestion: confine food
aid to emergency aid and otherwise replace it with financial
assistance." (9)
A few weeks later, the Court of Auditors of the EEC echoed that assessment in
its Special Report on Community Food Aid, finding that "programming and
management of Community food aid needs to be completely recast". (io)
 In a debate on development aid policy in June 1981, Lord Trefgarne, the
Under-Secretary of State for Trade, told the House of Lords that the British
Government had "reservations about the developmental benefits of food aid"
and that it had consistently opposed increases in EEC dairy food aid. 0 0
As far as voluntary agencies are concerned, in 1981 the World Council of
Churches published a study critical of project food aid. (12) In the US, Church
World Service (CWS), in partnership with Lutheran World Relief, have engaged a
consultant to investigate the issue, while in 1980, in testimony to its parliament,
the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, an umbrella group for 75
voluntary agencies, recommended that "except in cases of emergencies, food aid
be abolished." 03)
Outside the development agencies there has been in recent years an unprece-
dented spate of unfavourable comment about project food aid in the world press,
as well as television and radio coverage on both sides of the Atlantic.
This report seeks to investigate the impact of food aid as a tool for develop-
ment. It does not therefore focus primary attention on arguments that have
occasionally been made in its favour for example that, even if it does go astray,
at least it supplements the total amount of food available in the country. Clearly,
agricultural disincentives aside, even misplaced food must make such a contri-
bution. But the founding premise of project food aid is that it can be used dis-
criminatingly, that it can be 'targeted' at 'needy individuals' in development
programmes and that it can be a long-term development tool. These are the terms
in which it is justified and, after 25 years, these are the criteria against which it
should be judged.
This book is based largely on the published findings of the food aid institu-
tions themselves and on independent evaluations carried out on behalf of the
governments for whom the agencies act as custodians. It draws also upon aca-
demic and official surveys of the published material. Most importantly, it gives
a platform to field workers, many of whom have had direct experience of hand-
ling food aid, as well as those who have been well placed to observe its effects
both on the recipient communities as a whole, and on development projects in
particular.
The book is divided into two sections. Chapters 2-5 examine the major mech-
anisms by which project food aid is distributed disaster relief (including refugee
feeding), food-for-work (FFW), mother-child-health (MCH) and school and other
institutional feeding. These chapters draw upon case studies which show that
what is happening in the field is often at odds with head office theory.
In disasters (Chapter 2), food aid is often sent and distributed in a haphazard
and ill-planned way. Many calls for help are answered late or inappropriately;
often there is no need to hand out the food free of charge and, sometimes, food
may not be what is needed at all. To overcome such difficulties, the question of
food aid in disasters needs to be much more closely examined.
Food-for-work programmes (Chapter 3) generally have a notoriously low
productivity rate and are widely associated with shoddy workmanship, so that
although they create short-term employment, their claim to provide long-term
benefits to the community is often proved wrong. On occasions, the benefits
which are created accrue to the relatively well-off, some of whom get free labour
provided under the FFW scheme. In such cases, there is more than a little truth
in the aphorism that the rich get richer and the poor get food aid.
Mother and child health programmes distributing food (Chapter 4) have usu-
ally failed to improve nutritional levels and have also failed to reach those who
are most in need of supervised supplementary feeding. In most cases attempts to
provide nutrition education are no more than token. There is even some evidence
that children who do not receive food aid do better nutritionally than those who
do.
School feeding (Chapter 5) discriminates against the poor and the nutritionally
most vulnerable; it is also subject to all the risks of unsupervised 'supplementary'
feeding. Evaluations have not found that it has brought about lasting improve-
ments in attendance rates.
In short, the evidence is that although the food may be feeding people, the
beneficiaries are usually not those who are most in need. These chapters also
challenge the commonly-held belief that food aid is a matter of life and death
and that the poor are dependent on it. Most of the programmes provide a wel-
fare service at best while the long-term development benefits have been slight.
The remaining chapters discuss the problems intrinsic and peculiar to food aid
and the difficulties faced by development projects which are based on, or incor-
porate, distribution of free foreign food. The most obvious disadvantage, to both
donors and recipients alike, is the high cost associated with food aid as it is cur-
rently administered (Chapter 6). This financial burden usually increases each year
and causes the cost-benefit ratio to worsen. It is likely that many of the aims of
project food aid could be achieved by cheaper means and without the risk of a
programme's continued dependence on foreign food.
More crucial still is the unwieldiness of large-scale consignments of free food,
which makes it extremely difficult to handle as an efficient development tool
(Chapter 7). Losses through damage or misappropriation are rife and the lack of
proper records, an affliction common to many food aid projects, means that often
no one knows what has happened to the food at all, other than that someone has
taken it away. Despite that, routine administration of the food still absorbs a
disproportionate amount of field workers' time and attention, distracting them
from the development component of the programme.
The effect of project food aid on local food production also needs to be con-
sidered. Most of the literature on this subject looks at government-to-government
transactions as project food aid was assumed to be too small to have any serious
disruptive effect. However, it is clear that free food can compete with local food
in the market place and for storage and transport facilities. This aspect is exam-
ined in Chapter 8.
On the other hand, there is sometimes a need for controlled nutrition inter-
ventions using supplementary feeding, which may or may not require imported
food, according to local circumstances. Strict monitoring and close observation
would be an absolute pre-condition of such programmes, to ensure that the food
supplements go only to those in real need and do not become substitutes for the
normal diet. These provisos would disqualify the great majority of beneficiaries
of supplementary and school feeding programmes as they are currently adminis-
tered.
Even more urgent is the need to give a much higher priority to food aid for
relief after natural and man-made disasters. In 1980 food aid arrived late in both
Uganda and Somalia with obvious human consequences, while thousands of tons
were shipped elsewhere for less urgent programmes.
The overall conclusion is that long-term project food aid does not overcome
the problems it sets out to solve, and can even exacerbate them. While some pro-
grammes have successfully integrated food handouts with development work,
these are very much the exception to the rule. In most cases the commodity dic-
tates the programmes and the food aid tail wags the development dog. What food
aid proponents fail to acknowledge is that in most cases project food aid applies
a first-aid measure to a long-term disease. It ignores the fundamental problem
which is poverty, and attempts to address the symptom, which is hunger. Poverty
is an economic problem. The poor, by definition, lack money. It is the argument
of this book that food aid is not an appropriate substitute.
Some of the food aid agencies have in the past been intensely hostile to criti-
cism, yet the last 25 years also bear witness to the enormous fund of goodwill
and humanitarian concern which these agencies have at their disposal. It is to be
hoped that these strengths will be redirected to more fruitful ends.
When people seek refuge in a neighbouring country they can seriously strain
the resources of their hosts. When they arrive in large numbers they may risk
hunger or even death if food aid is not available.
 FOOD A\D FOR # # # #
DISASTER RELIEF C 2 X
AND REFUGEES 1 1 1 1
O f any images spring to mind at the mention of food aid, they are those of
emaciated children, the forlorn victims of natural disaster, or of refugees
pathetically seeking asylum in countries which lack the resources to provide for
them. In such cases, what could be more appropriate than countries with food
surpluses offering humanitarian assistance in the form of donations of free food?
Yet of the 1,000,000,000 of food aid disbursed throughout the world each
year, only about 10% is allocated to disaster relief. 0) Consequently, when food
aid is desperately needed, it is often not readily available. When it does arrive,
it may be inappropriate to people's needs, there may be too much or too little
of it, there may be no adequate means of transporting it within the stricken
country, or, more tragically, it may simply be too late. On many occasions, well-
intentioned efforts have caused more problems than they have solved.
The first part of this chapter will examine individual case-studies of disaster
relief programmes under three main headings:
When is food aid needed?
How should it be distributed?
When should the food aid stop?
The second part will look at some of the policies of the food aid donors gov-
erning emergency supplies and at the suggestions that have been made to improve
them.

When is Food Aid Needed?

Some disasters affect food availability; these include drought and flooding, both
of which may disrupt local and regional food production for a time. Subsistence
farming communities may be seriously affected by such environmental vagaries
and forced to compete in local markets for food, if they have the resources to do
so. Landless labourers and small farmers working in the cash crop sector of the
economy require the food market for their survival. However, when food pro-
duction falls, prices rise and access to the market becomes difficult for the poor.
Seeds are often eaten instead of being planted. So, in these food-related disasters
food aid, both in the short-term and the medium-term, may be required.
Other disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes, may bring about a tempor-
ary shortage of local foods if crops are damaged or roads are destroyed. A recov-
ery can usually be made soon afterwards. Thus food aid will be needed, if at all,
for a limited period only.
In the case of 'man-made' disasters (such as wars and civil disturbances), which
involve refugees, a large influx of people who are not producing food may
seriously stretch the local market. At these times, food will have to be imported
by the host country; in many cases, food aid will be required.
It is relatively easy to see what damage has been done in a sudden-impact
disaster, such as an earthquake or flood, and what the needs for food or other
assistance might be. Interventions in cases of drought and consequent famine are
harder to judge. In addition, the governments of affected countries may be re-
luctant to release details of the catastrophe to the international community
aid agencies are obliged to wait for their host government's approval before they
publicise the need for action.
The results of such a policy are best illustrated by the case of Ethiopia in the
early 1970s where the relief operation only began in earnest long after the famine
had started. For political reasons the international community felt obliged to
refrain from making public statements about its extent as long as the Government
itself did not do so and made no appeal for help. Starvation followed. (2)
In other cases official inertia appears to have caused a lack of response. The
Sahelian drought of the late 1960s and early 70s caused thousands of deaths;
the number is unknown but the usual estimate is about 100,000. (3) It was not
until 1973, six years after the famine began, however, that large-scale relief ef-
forts started. The facts were known to the international community but little
action was taken before the worst effects of the drought had been felt and tens
of thousands had died. A report from the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace comments:
"The catastrophe of the drought did not happen suddenly.
For at least four years, scores of officials from the U.S. and
the U.N. were in the region, observing that the states of the
Sahel were essentially helpless to deal with the drought, re-
porting the gathering disaster, and dispensing some relief. Yet
neither the U.S. nor the U.N. had contingency plans to deal
with the tragedy as it reached overwhelming proportions by
the fall of 1972." (4)
It would be a mistake, however, to assume that simply to send supplies of
food to the stricken country will solve the problem. Unless care is taken, the
logistical problems associated with freight, storage and distribution of perish-
able commodities can create an administrative burden that is too great for the
local infrastructure to sustain. This can cause difficulties for the recipient country.
"Following a drought in 1972/3, Britain offered Lesotho
emergency food aid. The Lesotho response was that it could
absorb 1,000 tons of wheat. However, when a firm offer came
from the UK it was for 6,000 tons of wheat. The Lesotho
Government accepted the increased amount even though ade-
quate storage facilities did not exist, and at the same time re-
ceived as emergency food aid over 1,000 tons of Belgian wheat
flour instead of the 662 tons originally requested, as well as its
normal development food aid deliveries. In addition, and con-

8
 trary to expectation, the 1973/4 harvest was particularly large.
The result was the diversion of Lesotho government personnel
away from the management of routine food aid into the task
of finding ways of storing and disposing of the surplus wheat,
the construction of 6 new storage sheds at a cost of R45,000
[about 27,500], and the loss through rotting of many bags of
wheat." (5)
At the more local level, careful planning and supervision are essential if inci-
dents such as the following are to be avoided. The first is from a study of food
distribution in Uganda.
"Respondents complained that the food aid had only been dis-
tributed from one to four times since mid-1980, in most but
not all communities. Nothing was distributed anywhere in
North Teso during November and December, 1980, and most
respondents were doubtful that distributions would be resumed.
The quantities handed out were usually so small and the dis-
tributions so chaotic (one local porter was killed and six injur-
ed during one distribution at Katakwi after they were allegedly
thrown off a truck by CARE employees escaping from a dis-
satisfied crowd), that many residents considered the whole
operation totally ineffective." (6)
A correspondent who worked in Haiti in the mid-1970s described the difficulties
of drought-relief food aid as follows:
"In Haiti we had much more of a problem of theft and mis-
handling. In [a] town. . . fairly near to us and very badly hit
by drought, the magistrate (appointed mayor) was known to
sell PL480 food for $7.00 a 50 lb. bag. At other times the
CARE food distributers were so desperate that they would
just throw bags of food off the truck and drive on so that the
food would go to the strong and the swift." O)
In other cases, imported food may not be necessary at all, despite a major dis-
aster, and its arrival may do more harm than good. The classic example of this
comes from Guatemala where the earthquake in 1976 killed an estimated 23,000
people, injured over three times as many and left a million and a quarter home-
less. The earthquake occurred in the middle of a record harvest. Local grain was
plentiful and the crops were not destroyed but left standing in the fields or
buried under the rubble but easy to recover.
During the first few weeks, small consumer items salt, sugar, cal, soap
etc. were in short supply and temporarily unavailable in the shops. Some of
these small items, such as salt, were lost when the houses collapsed. People
expressed a need for these food items in the short period before commercial
supplies were resumed. However, during that year, about 25,400 tons of basic
grains and blends were brought in as food aid from the US. A further 5,000 tons
of US food aid already stored in Guatemala were released and supplies were also
sent in from elsewhere in the region. (8)
 CRS and CARE both received reports from their field staff saying food aid
was not needed. The Director of CARE's housing reconstruction programme
visited the disaster area soon after the earthquake. In a US Government report
he stated:
"Another thing I was really concerned with was whether there
was any need to import food or seed. But I saw no indication
of that whatsoever. First of all, the earth was not damaged,
and there was no reason why the crops couldn't be harvested
on time, and I believe it was a good crop that year. Also, in a
few places I visited, I asked people if they could pull the food
they had in their houses out of the rubble, and they said they
certainly could." (9)
CRS field staff objected to the importing of food aid but they were overruled
by their headquarters in New York. (10) Two weeks after the disaster, the League
of Red Cross Societies asked national Red Cross Societies to stop sending food.
As early as February (the same month as the earthquake), the Co-ordinator of
the National Emergency Committee of the Government of Guatemala asked vol-
untary agencies to stop imports of food aid. 01) On 4 March, the Assistant
Administrator for the Latin America Bureau of the United States Agency for
International Development (AID), the Hon. Herman Kleine, testified before a
House of Representatives Sub-Committee.
"I should like to add here, Mr. Chairman, that the Guatemalan
Government has requested officially to all donors that further
inkind contributions not be of food and medicine but roofing
and building materials." (12)
Finally, the Government of Guatemala invoked a presidential decree to pro-
hibit imports of basic grains from May 1976 onwards. 03) Yet after this decree,
quantities of food aid were still imported in the form of blended foodstuffs. One
article refers to these blends as "basic grains in disguise". 04)
Field staff and local leaders identified three negative results. Firstly, they con-
sidered that food aid contributed to a drop in the price of local grain that occurred
soon after the earthquake and continued throughout 1976. As to the need for
basic grains, a peasant farmer explained:
"There was no shortage. There was no need to bring food from
outside. On the contrary, our problem was to sell what we
had." 05)
After an extensive survey of towns and villages in the worst-hit area six weeks
after the earthquake, an OXFAM-World Neighbors official reported:
"Virtually everyone in the area is selling more grain this year
than he does normally. Furthermore, emergency food ship-
ments have drastically curtailed demand for grains. Thus the
prices of the farmers' produce have plummeted." 06)
Later, the then Director of CRS in Guatemala was to tell the New York Times:

10
 "The general effect was that we knocked the bottom out of
the grain market in the country for nine to twelve months."
0?)
This last view may be overstated as other factors, such as the excellent grain har-
vest, would usually have led to a fall in prices anyway. Nonetheless, the basic
fact remains: $8 million of food aid was sent into a country with plentiful food-
stocks of its own. Any food that it was necessary to distribute to earthquake
victims could have been bought in Guatemala (as WFP did).
The second negative effect of the continuing supply of free food was to
encourage the survivors to queue for rations instead of engaging in reconstruc-
tion or normal agricultural work. (18)
Thirdly, it brought about a change in the quality and motivation of local
leadership. The OXFAM-World Neighbors official, quoted above, noted:
"Immediately after the earthquake, we tended to see the same
leaders whom we'd seen before the earthquake people . . .
[with] a high degree of honesty and personal commitment to
the villages. But gradually . . . . I began seeing fellas who I
knew were totally dishonest. They'd go into the different
agencies and . . . . say that theirs was the most affected village
in the Highlands, and they'd get more food. So largely because
of the give-aways, the villages started to turn more to leaders
who could produce free things like this, whether they were
honest or dishonest, rather than to the leaders they'd been
putting their trust in for years.
With larger and larger quantities of free food coming in, there
are increased incentives to corruption. . . . Groups that had
worked together previously became enemies over the question
of recipients for free food." 09)
If at times food aid has been distributed when the need for it did not exist, at
others it has been sent in too late to be of use and has therefore been wasted. In
Haiti, much of the food aid for the drought in 1977 failed to arrive until 1978
and was distributed during and after a very good harvest in the drought area. A
UN official in Haiti stated that the reason food aid was given out when it was no
longer needed was that it was "not economically feasible" to send it back again.
(20) What happened in Haiti has since been dismissed as an anomaly. (21) Yet
similar events have taken place elsewhere.
A WFP relief programme aimed at vulnerable groups in Bangladesh,
such as small children and pregnant and nursing mothers, began in
January 1976, more than a year after the outbreak of famine. (22)
EEC skimmed milk powder requested by Grenada after flooding in
1976 arrived in 1979, in time for another emergency. (23)
- US food aid for the famine of 1977-78 in Bas Zaire arrived in the
latter part of July 1979, many months after the crisis had passed. (24)
- In April 1980, the EEC sent over 500 tons of rice and 100 of butter-

11
 oil to Dominica, although the need for food aid caused by the 1979
hurricanes had long passed. (25)
It must be recognised that after a certain delay has occurred, the food com-
mitments cannot provide effective emergency relief and that a large influx of
free food after that point may serve to cause problems by interrupting the local
economy and interfering with recovery efforts. Such belated consignments of
food should, therefore, be cancelled.
Thus, when food aid is needed, it is important to ensure that it arrives on
time and in the right quantities. When food crops have been damaged or des-
troyed by adverse weather, the likely shortfall can often be predicted some time
in advance of any hardship. Similarly, in the case of refugee communities, food
needs can often be forecast. Although the timing of interventions may be dif-
ficult to judge, donors could make greater efforts to anticipate food aid require-
ments and to negotiate with potential recipient governments. This would reduce
the crucial delays which occur between the decision to intervene and the eventual
delivery of food consignments. In the case of food aid for sudden-impact dis-
asters, speed is important.
A well-organised and equitable relief programme is possible. In the devastat-
ed south-west of the Dominican Republic following Hurricanes David and
Frederick in 1979, food-stocks were largely destroyed. An appeal was relayed
to Caritas of Holland and food aid, paid for by the Dutch, was immediately
sent in by sea from other Caribbean islands and 8 weeks later from Holland
itself. WFP also transferred stocks from Haiti. The swift international response
enabled food to meet the needs of 300,000 people over a five-month period.
From the beginning, recipients were told that the food would be provided only
for these five months; thus, the false expectations of continued food assistance
were not created and no institutionalisation of the programme followed. The
programme was designed and run locally and its success was largely due to these
factors. (26)
What Kind of Food?
Once the vulnerable groups have been identified, actual requirements must be
determined to ensure that the rations suit individual needs and that the total
donations do not upset local marketing arrangements. It is doubtful whether
potato crisps, slimming foods, 'Ribena' or spaghetti sauce (seen as food aid in
Chad, Guatemala, Kampuchea and the Dominican Republic) could ever be a
suitable form of assistance.
The consequences of sending inappropriate food can be serious. During the
Biafran War of 1968, large quantities of Emmenthaler cheese were sent from
Switzerland.
"As it happened, the population drank extremely little milk in
normal times and cheese was virtually unknown. The adults
would not even taste it, whilst children dutifully swallowed a
few mouthfuls and then vomited. The relief workers them-
selves discovered that they had limited appetites for the stuff,
and when storage of the sweating cheese became too difficult

12
 it had to be buried." (27)
Where there is a need for medically supervised nutrition interventions, protein-
fortified foods may be especially useful; but for general supplementary feeding
programmes, the chief need is for a high calorie intake. Yet vast amounts of dried
skimmed milk (which has a low calorie content) have been donated for disaster
relief programmes even in countries where people have a lactose intolerance
and where the "extensive infrastructure of health services" needed to ensure its
safe use, cannot be provided. (28)
One way of ensuring the suitability of food aid is to purchase it locally or
regionally wherever possible. This is an approach to disaster relief which is in-
creasingly favoured by both the EEC and the WFP. The EEC refers to this method
as 'triangular operations' because it makes money available to buy food in a
country near to the afflicted area rather than sending out food of its own. (29)
In fact, food is usually locally or regionally available, as one experienced field
worker has reported.
"We found in all the major disasters that there was always
enough food in the surrounding area to take care of the needs.
There was never a need to import foods from the industrialized
countries. The surrounding area can be broadly defined.
But let's say that in Managua there was enough food in Nic-
aragua. In Guatemala, if there had really been a need for it,
there would have been enough food in Central America. For
Biafra, there was enough food in the neighboring countries.
After the war, there was enough in Nigeria to meet the Bi-
afrans' needs. There was also enough food in the area around
Bangladesh. Very rarely after a disaster do you need to import
foods at all." (30)
It is important to make an accurate assessment of food requirements before
food aid, from wherever it comes, is dispatched. (3i) These requirements are
determined by various factors, such as whether the food aid is intended as a
supplement (because of local crop failure, perhaps) or whether it will be the
only food supply. A report by a former FAO Food and Nutrition Adviser shows
how vitally important this assessment can be.
"During April 1978 and the following months some 200,000
refugees from Burma streamed into Bangladesh and a massive
relief programme with international assistance was started. In
spite of the fact that the help which was offered exceeded the
needs, as many as 10,000 people (7,000 of them children)
died by the end of the year . . . . Of the 10,000 people who
died in this case, some 7,000-8,000 should under normal
circumstances have survived." (32)
Though the required food was available, "an artificial famine-like situation
developed with massive malnutrition and excessive mortality". (33) The ration
had been determined incorrectly by calculating what the Government gave its own
people in times of disaster; this was not a full ration but a supplementary one, as

13
settled communities are very rarely entirely without food of their own. Unfor-
tunately, after the first few weeks, the refugees had to exist entirely on food aid.
Thus, the food provided was too little. The author of the report concludes by
deploring the lack of systematic guidelines for calculating food needs, saying
that,
"It is well known that similar relief disasters have happened
before and that they may happen again. . . One of the most
striking features [of the present system] is the lack of agreed
norms and recommendations related to food provision and
established human nutritional needs. . . Lack of clarity on this
basic point leaves room for indecision and fumbling which can
have disastrous consequences." (34)
The food requirements of a stricken community should, as far as possible, be
established before commitments are made from overseas. Systematic checks of
regionally available supplies would, in many cases, indicate that needs could be
partially or entirely satisfied from within the area. This approach is recommend-
ed since it not only helps to ensure that donations are compatible with the nor-
mal diet but also reduces transport costs and is quicker, as well as being of eco-
nomic benefit to the country in which the purchases are made.

How Should Food Aid Be Distributed?

In emergencies, the most pressing need is to distribute the food speedily and
equitably. Sometimes, this can be done through institutions (such as schools or
hospitals) or development programmes already in existence. It may be, however,
that there is no infrastructure adequate to cope with the food, that existing pro-
jects refuse to handle it, or that the stricken area is unfamiliar territory to the
food aid agencies. Any of these factors can make it difficult to distribute the food
fairly, and can increase the likelihood of its being given to all-comers, regardless
of individual need.
All of the above factors were reflected in the Karamoja relief operation of
1980-81. The Karamoja district had long been regarded as a Ugandan backwater;
for a variety of reasons, development agencies had little knowledge of either the
region or its society.
When the news of the famine came to the attention of the outside world, much
of the damage had already been done and the relief work which ensued was
something of a salvage operation. Nonetheless, insecurity in the area, combined
with confusion, mismanagement and bureaucratic obstacles on the part of the
various agencies of the UN meant that there were even more delays in delivering
and distributing adequate food supplies. (35) In addition, accurate population
figures were not available.
Food was meant to be supplied to families through FFW projects and supple-
mentary feeding centres for mothers and children. Some effective relief work was
done and undoubtedly lives were saved. However, many OXFAM field workers
commented on the fact that irregular and unreliable supplies strained their work-
ing relationship to the utmost, particularly since food had at first been distribut-

14
ed indiscriminately. An OXFAM official, who had lived in Uganda for some time
before the relief programmes started, reported as follows:
"[The Karamojong] are quite capable of killing you if they
think you're ripping them off and that's why the food's got to
get here on time." (36)
An OXFAM official working in another part of Uganda reported:
"Food for work has never taken off the ground here and it is
difficult to see how that could change now people are used
to their ration for nothing and they get very upset if it is
fiddled about. But [there is] no famine now population
figures to which we are working are probably up to twice the
actual size." (37)
There was the additional problem about conflicting, if not contradictory,
approaches to food distribution. For example, a UNICEF nutrition officer
certified that the children in one feeding centre were not suffering from mal-
nutrition; the OXFAM field worker, therefore, closed it down. In spite of this,
another agency then organised feeding centres in the same area which, it was
observed, continued to undermine family structures that had already been severely
weakened. (38)
There were also managerial problems. The difficulty of ascertaining accurate
population figures has already been mentioned. This, together with the urgency
associated with relief operations, meant that officials who went to take over the
programme found that records were inadequate and that unaccounted losses
were rife.
"I started to sort out the mess of the stores and the accounting
system which was non-existent, in that the figures that were
produced bore no relation to the actual stock. . . . One of the
weakest links in the supply chain from Tororo to Moroto was
that | the lorries left Tororo without an escort, so that a fan-
percentage of the loads never actually arrived, the load was
sold in Mbale, then the lorry went to Soroti to the CARE
warehouse and reloaded before going on to Moroto." (39)
Many of these problems are frequent in long-term projects using food aid but
the consequences can be particularly grave in relief work. While it is impossible
to generalise about distribution methods as circumstances vary considerably,
the Karamoja experience does serve to highlight some of the pitfalls common to
relief operations.
The most important is that feeding centres run the risk of becoming perma-
nent settlements which draw people away from the rural areas, where they might
resume food production. (40) This tacitly condones the idea that help has to
come from outside. An agency has to balance these risks against its ability to
handle the distribution of food aid efficiently and effectively.
As noted earlier, a famine does not always mean that there is no local food
available. The case of the 1974 famine in Bangladesh is a most telling example of

15
the distinction between food availability and distribution. The common view is
that floods were responsible for food shortages and, therefore, famine. 1974,
however, was a peak year, both for total rice production and output per head in
Bangladesh. (4i)) Employment opportunities, on the other hand, were curtailed
by the floods, as the following article describes:
"Taking wheat production and imports into account, there
was no decline in the availability of food grains. Employment
opportunities, however, did diminish as a result of the floods
and this decline in the demand for labour was accompanied
by a fall in the wage rate relative to the price of rice. In one
district the 'rice entitlement of wages' fell by up to 70 per-
cent. Once again, the incidence of famine was highest among
labourers." (42)
hi fact it may not always be necessary to provide very much additional food
to prevent starvation. An AID official, who was working in Bangladesh in 1974,
later wrote that,
"The early allocation of food for people affected by the flood
could have been accomplished with relatively small amounts of
grain. If 2,000 tons of grain had been promptly allocated to
the northwest, starvation could have been prevented." (43)
Field workers have also commented on the changes in local attitudes to re-
habilitation work or to development projects which can follow in the wake of
prolonged distribution of free food.
"Food distribution programs make future development work
which does not involve free goods much more difficult. . . .
People with long-term development programs in Honduras
have complained that, since Hurricane Fifi and the emergency
effort which followed it, long-term nutrition and agricultural
programs have been practically impossible because the people
are only interested in what those from the outside are willing
to give them." ()
The OXFAM Field Director for South India noticed a similar trend after a
cyclone in Andhra Pradesh.
"Even in Divi, where relief was needed, continued distribution
of free food and supplies became counter-productive. Villagers
came to find it more attractive to sit by the roadside waiting
for distribution than to go back to work." (45)
One alternative would be to sell the food aid. When food is sold, even at sub-
sidised prices, the onus for selection lies with the purchasers; they decide whether
or not they wish to take advantage of the scheme.
Sales would not have been possible in Kampuchea, in 1979/80 where money
had been destroyed by the Khmer Rouge and food was used to pay city-workers.
In many other cases, however, there is no need to give the food away in this

16
manner; a shortage of food does not necessarily mean that people have no money.
In Karamoja, for example, food aid could have been sold in the same way as
seeds and other agricultural inputs were under an OXFAM project. (46)
In Guatemala, the OXFAM/World Neighbours project sold food aid (salt,
sugar, etc.) and reconstruction materials to the stricken villagers. The money
thus generated enabled more relief supplies to be bought - a system which the
recipients regarded as equitable. (47) Sales of subsidised relief supplies have also
been sponsored by AID in similar circumstances. (48) The EEC sent emergency
food aid to Cape Verde which was sold in order to create more cash-paid em-
ployment; people were thus enabled to buy food and other needs as they re-
quired. (49) In the Dominican Republic in 1979, the food aid supplied through
a locally-organised relief group was sold at subsidised prices, the proceeds being
used to pay for the cost of the programme. (50) Sales of food do, of course,
need to be carefully controlled to avoid abuses, such as bulk-buying by individ-
uals. This was done in all the above examples.
The sales approach does not preclude the setting up of medically controlled
nutrition rehabilitation units for those people who might otherwise be missed
but who are in need of special treatment; these clinics would act as a useful
indicator of the food needs of the local community.
Finally, one of the greatest advantages of the organised selling of relief sup-
plies, apart from the increased level of accountability this introduces, is that the
food aid does not compromise the future relationship between the aid worker
and the local people, or set up false expectations of subsequent development
projects.

When Should Relief Food Aid Stop?

In general, development agencies and field workers are agreed that it is unde-
sirable as well as unnecessary to prolong the distribution of free food after a
disaster. This is illustrated by a series of reports made by the local Caritas office
following the drought in Haiti in 1977.
"It is the wish of all conscientious leaders that we should stop
receiving food from outside. . . More or less everywhere in the
diocese there are complaints that food aid is harming com-
munity spirit." (si)
Three months later, the office stated:
"In our opinion, food aid, although necessary for the survival
of the population, does not cease to pose serious problems.
Community spirit is diminishing and corruption installing it-
self in the hearts of those immediately in charge." (52)
Three months later still, when production was coming in after the rains, they
reported:
"At last we hope to rid ourselves of the yoke of imported
food which has no other effect than of diminishing community
spirit, while encouraging passivity in people." (53)

17
 Donors, however, are very anxious to integrate emergency food relief with
long-term development work. As the former Executive-Director of WFP wrote
in his Annual Report for 1980:
"First, emergency food aid should be provided speedily but
for a relatively short period of time, sufficient, however, to
attend to the most urgent and basic needs. Secondly, emergency
assistance should be phased out as quickly as possible and a
programme of reconstruction and rehabilitation supported as a
bridge to fully-fledged developmental action." (54)
Since the WFP uses food aid in all its "developmental actions" it is not easy
to see what exactly the practical distinction between these and the projects which
involve "emergency food aid" is except that the work planned in FFW pro-
grammes may be more permanent.
Development work often originates as disaster relief. However, the problem
with projects which have their roots in relief food hand-outs is, as already noted,
that it can prove difficult to move towards a more self-reliant form of develop-
ment. There are several factors which contribute to this institutionalisation of
food-aid projects.
Firstly, food aid both for emergency relief and development work is, in most
cases, distributed by the same groups and through the same channels. It is, there-
fore, extremely easy to drift from one to the other.
For example, since the earthquake of 1976, Guatemala has continued to
receive much larger amounts of non-disaster food aid than it had ever received
before. (55) This is not uncommon.
Food aid was first sent to Haiti in 1954 after Hurricane Hazel. As
one priest commented, "It simply never stopped coming". (56)
Food aid to Lesotho began in 1962 for emergency relief and, by
1978, 10% of the nation's food was being imported and distributed
by CRS and WFP. By 1979, about half the population was a recip-
ient of US project food aid. (57)
Food aid from West Germany to the People's Republic of Yemen be-
gan in 1972 as emergency aid. Afterwards, it continued at the same
level as project food aid. (58)
Secondly, the accurate targeting and distribution of free food requires a
colossal amount of administrative work and effort. Once the food aid juggernaut
has been set on the road, it is tempting to let it proceed under its own mo-
mentum rather than make it change direction, or call it to a complete halt. For
example, FFW schemes in Bangladesh began in 1975, just after the worst of the
famine was over. Some 45,000 tonnes were sent in. By 1979, over 220,000 ton-
nes were still being distributed through FFW projects. As an AID report states,
this five-fold increase took place in spite of the fact that food conditions had
changed considerably between 1975 and 1979.
"Since [1975] there have been 4 consecutive years of good
domestic food grain crops and an improvement in most ec-

18
 onomic indices. There is no famine and no massive starvation.
The government has built up a food reserve of over 600,000
metric tons which can cover three to four months ration
system offtakes." (59)
Nevertheless, the evaluator reported that the role of the FFW programme re-
mained unchanged.
" [FFW] is still primarily a relief operation which is evaluated
in terms of the amount of wheat distributed and the employ-
ment generated. Its longer term effect on rural poverty and de-
velopment is paid little or no attention." (6)
And thirdly, as the case of Guatemala illustrates, there can be a great deal of
pressure to continue distributing food, even in the face of local opposition. The
reasons for this insistence are complicated nervousness, inadequate com-
munication with the field, a reluctance to believe that food aid could be doing
any positive damage, etc. together with the less honourable motives of con-
venient surplus disposal, competition with other donor governments or agencies
or a chance to win public approbation by being seen to be giving assistance.
Sometimes, there seems to be a kind of managerial inertia in which decisions are
not taken. For example, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pales-
tine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) continues to provide the Palestinian
refugees with regular rations of food aid. These began as a relief measure in 1948
and were resumed in 1967. A former UNRWA official states,
". . . . as a regular feature of refugee life food aid is a prime
agent of the dependence relationship and the state of mind
which it generates. In 1980, the number of refugees entitled to
a regular ration issue was over 830,000. Although UNRWA
recognises that the general distribution of food aid is no long-
er necessary, it has not terminated the programme." (6')
The onus must be on the donors to make clear from the start that foreign
food aid is not to become a central component of subsequent projects, and to
make a schedule for the steady reduction of rations, leading to their withdrawal
as soon as possible.
How is Food Aid Released for Disaster Relief and Refugee Feeding?
Food aid for disaster relief from the US is released under PL 480 Title II and
is handled principally by CARE, CRS and WFP. Much of the Title II food aid
which goes straight to governments is also intended for this purpose. (62)
The EEC has a notorious record for the late arrival of relief food aid. The
Court of Auditors of the EEC states, in its 1980 report, that it is "not accept-
able that, on average, emergency aid should take three or four months to reach
the port of unloading". (fi3) The Court further reported that it saw "emergency
food aid (which took three months between the decision to grant aid and the
arrival of the ship) still lying in store at the port of unloading two months later
for lack, apparently, of available transport to the place of distribution". W
It is hoped that 'triangular operations' will alleviate this problem; in 1979, food

19
aid for Nicaragua, bought regionally, reached the country within a few days.
(65)

In emergencies, the WFP can send food shipments at the discretion of the
Director-General of FAO, on the recommendation of the Executive Director of
WFP.
In spite of some streamlining of procedures for emergency food aid, the
inadequate response of the donors to disasters has been the cause of some
anxiety within the FAO and elsewhere. (fi6) In the first three months of 1981,
there were appeals for over 4.8 million tons of emergency food aid. (67)
Whether they are launched by the stricken country or are initiated on its behalf
by the FAO, appeals may well be based on exaggerated estimates. Nonetheless,
there is due cause for concern, since food has frequently failed to reach those
needing it, in time and in sufficient quantities.
In 1975, in order to improve this state of affairs, the FAO set up the Inter-
national Emergency Food Reserve (IEFR). This was to be made up of contri-
butions of cash and commodities and placed at the disposal of WFP. But, in
spite of frequent appeals to donor governments, the Director-General of the
FAO told the European Parliament Development and Cooperation Group in
1980 that the Reserve "has never reached its target of 500,000 tons of grain"
and that "in 1979, it barely exceeded 300,000 tons". (68)' Moreover, of the
contributions made in 1980, 13% was channelled bilaterally and over half of the
donations were earmarked for specific emergencies, thereby reducing "the
amount of the IEFR that is freely available for emergencies which may arise in
any other country". (69) Thus, a WFP report states,
"On the whole, only little more than a quarter (26 percent)
of IEFR contributions in 1980 formally channelled through
WFP could in fact be committed to emergencies in 1980... in
a manner consistent with the envisaged concept of the Re-
serve. Even for those contributions, in most cases WFP had
some delay in committing IEFR resources until donors con-
firmed the availability of the specific commodities required as
well as their willingness to release their contributions for the
emergency concerned." (70)
The report goes on to say that, as a result of these factors, "the actual modal-
ities of the IEFR operations have departed from the original concept of a stand-
by international arrangement to be used when and where necessary". (71)
However, food is donated through alternative mechanisms. The report also notes
that "in 1979 bilateral emergency food aid directly given by donors (other than
through the IEFR) was about three and a half times all contributions to the
Reserve". (72)
The problem is not, therefore, entirely one of availability; it is one of polit-
ical choice. During 1979-80, political considerations about aid to Kampuchea
meant that there were great delays in the commitment of food. The Non-
Governmental Organisations (NGO) Consortium, led by OXFAM, felt that it was
appropriate and necessary to make shipments of food and, being free from po-
litical constraints, was able to respond more quickly. Similarly, the recent

20
official exclusion of Vietnam from access even to emergency relief for humani-
tarian purposes has meant that small agencies have again felt obliged to offer
assistance in the form of food aid. (73)
There are proposals to make the contributions legally binding on the donors
and freely at the disposal of WFP. (74) However, at the moment, the Director-
General of the FAO has remarkable personal control over the IEFR (and other
WFP emergency aid), allowing him in 1980 "at his own discretion to dispose
of emergency food aid amounting to a total value of US $200 million". (75)
This has led to concern among some donors to WFP about the appropriateness
of present decision-making and may partly explain why certain countries, the US
and EEC in particular, have been unwilling to donate more than they do to the
IEFR, or to have contributions to it made legally binding. (76)
However, the reasons for WFP's recommendations that donors should in-
crease their cash rather than their commodity contributions to the IEFR, should
be noted.
"Moreover, experience has shown that it would be highly
desirable to have a greater proportion of IEFR contributions
in the form of cash for the purchase of commodities in the
same regions as those affected by emergencies, thereby re-
ducing costs and the time lag before the arrival of relief sup-
plies." (77)
This echoes the EEC's policy on 'triangular operations' and certainly begs the
question if food can be purchased locally or regionally during emergencies,
then it must also be available after the emergency is over and medium-term
rehabilitation work has taken its place.

Conclusions
Food aid is often needed for emergency relief and this will often entail
imports, especially for refugees.
It would be unrealistic to expect a fool-proof prescription for integrating
food aid with disaster relief. However quickly assistance arrives, in certain types
of disaster it is almost bound to be too late to avert suffering for some indivi-
duals.
Not all of the misfortunes associated with emergency food aid reflect badly
on the donors. It is often difficult to determine the needs of the afflicted pop-
ulation or to judge the best time to make an intervention from outside. Potential
recipient governments bear the major responsibility for making such decisions or
for appealing for help when it is needed.
Nonetheless, in many respects, procedures for emergency food aid could be
improved by the donors. Food requirements need to be assessed carefully and
consignments of food made only if the commodities available answer these
needs. At present, there are too few routine checks on donations to ensure that
inappropriate foods are not sent. Also, potential donors should investigate within
the stricken region or a neighbouring country to ensure that food needs could
not be satisfied more swiftly and cheaply from local sources.

21
 Food aid, if it is needed at all, must arrive at the right time. Donors need to
find speedier ways of releasing food commodities once the need for them has
been established. Conversely, they must recognise that prolonged donations may
upset local recovery efforts and should, therefore, make firm plans to suspend
supplies as soon as possible.
For the same reason, belated donations are, in most cases, unnecessary. Hand-
ling agencies need to be more flexible in their approach to distributing relief
supplies, including food. Often, there is no need to give the food away and to do
so may undermine the efforts of local farmers to market their own food, or of
the local community to return to normality. Wherever possible, local people
should select and participate in the distribution of food aid.
Donors should not use emergencies as a way of beginning long-term food aid
projects. Once an emergency is over, food aid should be stopped.

22
 00000000
worn
O f the different means of distributing food aid, food-for-work (FFW) is the
most varied. It encompasses a number of approaches and methodologies,
ranging from multi-million pound efforts to construct irrigation schemes and
boost agricultural production to modest projects to stimulate local community
development.
Of all the uses of project food aid, FFW is the only one which has the poten-
tial to increase local food production directly. However, the primary benefits of
such programmes tend to go mainly to those who possess land.
TABLE I
LARGEST RECIPIENTS OF US FOOD AID THROUGHOUT FFW PROGRAMMES 1978 - 79. (1)

Total World Recipients 14,152,050

As Percentage of As Percentage of
Recipients Population Total Recipients

Asia (total recipients

-9,717,800)
Bangladesh 7,168,500 8.1% 50.6%
India 2,023,600 3.1% 14.3%
Indonesia 234,500 0.2% 1.6%
Sub Sahara Africa (total
recipients- 1,292,800)
Lesotho 257,500 19.8% 1.8%
Tanzania 204,000 1.8% 1.1%
Somalia 137,000 3.6% 1.0%
Near East (total recipients
-1,195,900)
Tunisia 239,700 3.9% 1.7%
Lebanon 215,700 9.9% 1.5%
Syria 154,000 5.7% 1.1%
Morocco 130,000 0.6% 1.0%
Egypt 123,100 0.3% 0.9%
Cyprus 100,000 16.0% 0.7%
Latin America (total
recipients-1,945,550)
Bolivia 701,000 13.0% 4.9%
Peru 347,400 2.0% 2.4%
Chile 120,000 1.1% 0.8%
Haiti 119,500 2.4% 0.8%
Dominican Republic 93,700 1.8% 0.6%

23
 This chapter will examine the impact on development of the three major
types of FFW programmes:
Public Works,
Community Development and
Resettlement Projects.
Public Woiks
The principal aim in using food aid for public works is to provide labour in-
tensive schemes in areas where there are high levels of underemployment and/or
unemployment. A secondary objective is to improve rural infrastructure by
building farm-to-market roads, introducing soil conservation measures, construc-
ting irrigation canals and so on. It is hoped that such work might contribute to an
increase in agricultural production. Public works projects have also included
slum clearance, squatter settlement improvement, the erection of community
buildings and even the salvaging of the Philae temples in Egypt. (2) In general,
these programmes are run in conjunction with local governments' own devel-
opment plans; in the case of WFP projects, local governments invariably make
financial contributions to the work, often three or four times as much as the
value of the food input. (3)
In accordance with the Protection of Wages Convention of the International
Labour Office, WFP (with CARE the major sponsor of FFW/public works
programmes) usually insists that workers receive at least half their wages in
cash at the prevailing local rate and the remainder in food. (4) There are ex-
ceptions to this. In Bangladesh, where there are millions of people employed on
FFW schemes, workers are paid entirely in food. (5)
The scale and physical achievements of FFW can be striking. The former
Executive Director of WFP described his programme in Bangladesh as follows:
"A four-year food-for-work programme which the Govern-
ment has been able to undertake since 1975 with the help of
480,000 tons of wheat supplied by the Programme has already
resulted in the clearing of nearly 2,000 miles of silted-up
canals and the rehabilitation of about 3,000 miles of embank-
ments. At times, more than two million men and women have
been employed on this project, which is expected to increase
the country's rice yield by 200,000 tons annually." (6)
The shifting of large quantities of earth to enable canals and flood embank-
ments to be constructed makes up a large proportion of the work performed
under FFW schemes (particularly in Bangladesh). Workers on this WFP project
earned just over six pounds of wheat for every ton of earth moved. As a WFP
booklet says, "on the larger sites hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of work-
ers equipped with only hand digging tools and baskets large enough to carry 45 kg
of earth at a time laboured from six o'clock in the morning to five in the after-
noon, with a rest period at noon. It was calculated that with the use of these
humble implements, more earth was moved by May 1976 than the total amount
moved in digging the Panama Canal". (7)

24
 <?h

-Hit
Food-for-work projects may provide employment for women and the old who
would otherwise have difficulty getting jobs. The work is often hard, productivity
is low and long-term benefits elusive.

25
 When described in quantitative terms, such achievements are impressive.
However, if public works are to be judged by the criterion of development, it is
essential to consider long-term benefits. For unless the poor those who work
on the scheme gain more than temporary employment, then the benefits in
development terms are open to question.
Concern about FFW/public works focuses on three major points.
How good are the levels of productivity and maintenance?
How much real or lasting employment is actually created?
Do the projects serve the interests of the poor in the long term?
Maxwell, who conducted research for the survey of studies of food aid com-
missioned by the WFP, finds that there are "broadly two views" on the question
of the distribution of benefits (assets).
". . . the first is that the assets are distributed in accordance
with the existing pattern of ownership; the second, the major-
ity view, is that public works actually tend to worsen the dis-
tribution of asset ownership. No study suggests that public
works redistribute assets to the poor and this may be an
important limitation of the approach, particularly since it
is so often emphasised that workers must derive immediate
benefit for public works to succeed." (8)>
He finds also that the choice of many public works projects has "reflected
inequitable land ownership" and thus worked in favour of the better-off.
"There are cases where small farmers and landless labourers do
benefit from the asset creation of public works, but the weight
of evidence seems to suggest that more often they do not
benefit in proportion to their numbers." (9)
There is evidence from a number of countries that the long-term benefits go to
those whom the projects are not designed to help rather than to those they are
intended to support. The problem for the project planners is well defined in an
FAO report on Tunisia.
". . . the WFP project cannot at present refuse any request for
assistance even when this request comes from wealthy farmers
who ask for the planting and maintenance of several dozen
hectares: this amounts to a payment by the State, with WFP
rations, of the wages of workers employed by the large pro-
prietors and gives them the benefits of credits and subsidies
intended in principle for the disadvantaged." (10)
In addition, land ownership patterns were made even more unjust by the
establishment of plantations on what were collective lands; in Tunisia the plant-
ing of trees establishes a private claim to property and thus the project was likely
to lead to the dispossession of the people who were working under the scheme.
By March, 1974, the programme had affected 60,000 families in 600 co-
operatives. It had cost WFP $18 million and the Tunisian Government a further

26
$30 million. Fifty-five thousand hectares of trees and 90,000 hectares of forage
crops had been planted. In 1979, an FAO expert engaged on the project wrote,
"[This project] is a good example of the way in which aid, in
principle intended to satisfy basic needs of poor rural people,
in fact ends by increasing the economic power and control of
land by the large growers." ( n )
The Tunisian Government was not itself unaware of this fact, noting in a
1974 report,
"At present, the food rations of the WFP project are given in
proportion to the area planted, as are the payments for work-
days on the irrigated area of Sbiba for vegetable and forage
crops. This favours the people owning the largest farms, those
for which subsidies are least justified." (12) (emphasis added)
Stevens reports that in Botswana, the main beneficiaries in a "food for
fallow" scheme also seemed to be the "larger more prosperous farmers". (13)
And the World Bank reports a case in Ethiopia where workers on a reforestation
project became disillusioned by the fact that the benefits were going to large
landowners and so sabotaged it by planting all the trees upside down! (14)
By far the biggest FFW/public works programmes in the world are in Bang-
ladesh. They began modestly as drought relief measurers in 1975 and since then
have grown enormously and become virtually institutionalised. In 1979 there
were 7.2 million participants (including dependents) enrolled on the US-sponsor-
ed programme alone (see Table I). There is growing concern about the whole
effort and in particular the long-term benefits deriving from it. In 1979, a field
worker living in Bangladesh was asked by an OXFAM-America official how
FFW benefited the participants in the programme apart from by giving them
food.
"A. I don't think the work benefits them very much unless you think
it's spiritually virtuous. The products of their work don't benefit
them at all. The people who do the work are landless. They carry
out improvements to land. . . . but the landless people don't own
the land so they don't get any of the benefits. Now, theoretically,
if you drain a piece of land, it becomes more productive and
there might be a greater demand for labor, but it often doesn't
work in practice.

Q. If I were a landholder and the Food For Work program decided

to improve my land by draining or leveling, do I then get free
labor?

A. You're absolutely right; that's how it works. That's a very im-

portant point which I think is generally missed.... What happens
with Food For Work is that Union Councils... organise the dis-
tribution for Food For Work. . . So not only do they get the
benefit of improving their land and their friends' land, but also

27
 there's tremendous scope for using the power of patronage that
it gives them. And also, of course, there's the possibility of divert-
ing some of the resources without doing any work at all, which
also happens to a large extent." (15)
Similar findings have come from AID and the Swedish International Develop-
ment Authority (SIDA), among others. 06) In 1979, AID called for an evalua-
tion of the secondary effects of FFW projects in Bangladesh, with reference
mainly to the CARE programme. So many difficulties were encountered by the
evaluator, especially with regard to the misappropriation of the food and to
assessing just how much employment was created, that only a preliminary report
was produced. Its conclusions are, therefore, tentative. It was found that where
secondary benefits did exist they "unambiguously are biased in favor on the
non-poor". 0 7 ) This leads to what is, perhaps, the report's major finding.
"FFW results in increased inequity:- Since the secondary
benefits of FFW mostly are related to the utilization of land
few benefits will accrue to the landless. In addition to that
the landless are losing a substantial part of the primary bene-
fits. Seen over time it seems clear that FFW not only streng-
thens 'the exploitative semi-feudal system which now controls
most aspects of the village life' (Akbar, 'Evaluation of Early
Implementation Projects') but also speeds up the polarisation
process in rural areas." 0 8 )
The study gives several illustrations of how this happens. For example, a
project to re-excavate a water tank (an artificial pond) ended in disqualifying
those who had previously been entitled to use it. Earnings from the tank went
to a single family and the general public was no longer allowed to use it even for
washing or bathing.
"It is difficult to identify any secondary effects of this tank
project that are beneficial to the people in Sariakandi. Nothing
has been produced from the tank during the two years since
re-excavation. On the contrary there is a loss of production
since some fish was caught prior to the re-excavation. Moreover
the tank could previously be used by all local people, for
bathing and washing whilst it now is a private tank. For the
family in possession of the lease, it represents a potential extra
income of 8 - 10,000 taka per year [approximately 250 -
300 at 1979 rates]." (19)
The report continues, "Comparing this tank with other tanks in Ishurdi it seems
normal rather than unique". (20) Another tank had identical characteristics to
the one already described. "[It] was poorly executed and left incomplete, is
leased to a private person and no fish has [sic] been produced." (21) The largest
tank in Sariakandi, re-excavated under a WFP-sponsored project, was much bet-
ter constructed although no fish had been caught by the time this evaluation was
carried out. It was expected to yield 4,000 pounds of fish per year starting in
1980. It was estimated that it would take 15 fishermen one week to harvest the

28
fish, thereby creating 75 man-days of labour. A watchman was posted by the
tank and the people who had restored it were prevented from fishing there. (22)
An embankment project involving some 35,000 man-days of labour was bene-
fiting people owning land in the area, including the chairman and several other
Parishad (village committee) members. Extra income would be used to buy more
land. However, landless people who depend on "agricultural labor and fishing for
their living will probably have to face at least a temporary set back since they
lose on fishing from the beginning and only in the future can benefit from in-
creased employment in crop production." (23) Landless people who live entirely
on fishing would from then on have to concentrate on river fishing, which is
harder work and requires more equipment. Again, a road project led to an in-
crease in land value of over 50% but "the largest beneficiaries are without doubt
the farmers owning land in the flood protected area." (24)
There are even cases in Bangladesh of people losing their land through FFW
projects, leaving them worse off than before. At times embankments and other
works have to be constructed across land belonging to villagers. No compensation
was given for the land used in the following case:
"One of the villagers who owns a very small plot of land is
very poor and the project passes through his land. Since the
land utilized for FFW projects is contributed to the project
on [a] voluntary basis, the poor villager received no com-
pensation from the BDG [Bangladesh Government]. However,
the PIC [Project Implementation Committee] gave this villager
a few maunds [1 maund = 80 lbs] of wheat from the allotment
on humanitarian grounds but the actual amount given is never
recorded." (25)
This is not an isolated case in Bangladesh and reverses the proverb 'give a man
a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you'll feed him for life".
Here the man has his land taken away from him for ever and he is given some
food to eat for a while.
It can thus be argued that in many cases the long-term benefits, where they
exist, accrue to a relatively privileged group rather than to the poor and that at
times, the poor are left worse off than they were before the project started.
Other factors further complicate the FFW/public works issue. Labour pro-
ductivity and maintenance are generally poor, so that the projects deteriorate
rapidly. Their contribution to development is therefore minimal. According to
Stevens, a survey of the literature on FFW concludes that "productivity on most
public works is abysmally low" and notes that "maintenance of completed assets
is often so poor that very little benefit is derived." (26) He gives an example of
FFW productivity in Lesotho which ranges from about four to eight times lower
than cash-paid workers are expected to achieve.
"What is particularly significant about these Lesotho figures is
not so much that they are poor as that they may be consider-
ably better than those in some other countries. Data on pro-

29
 ductivity in Upper Volta are very rudimentary. However, the
indications are that it is lower than in Lesotho, and may be
only one-third as great . . . Even in Tunisia, where the govern-
ment has considerably greater resources than exist in the other
three countries, productivity . . . was very low." (27)
Furthermore,
"The experience of these four countries [Botswana, Lesotho,
Tunisia and Upper Volta] is by no means untypical of labour
intensive public works, whether or not they are food aided.
Although a World Bank survey of 24 public works projects in
14 countries found that 'Tunisia appeared to have more than
most (tasks) that could be classified as make-work . . .', it
also reported many other instances of low productivity on low
priority projects." (28)
The reasons for low productivity on FFW/public works range from the
'tokenism' of much of the work, the consequently low morale of the employees
and the high proportion of workers who would otherwise be considered un-
employable (ie, the old or disabled), to the fact that administration and super-
vision are often slacker than in conventional employment. Supervision of projects
which involve the distribution of free gifts is itself difficult and since people are
being paid in food (or a combination of food aid and cash), it is hard to insist on
high standards of work. A supervisor can scarcely criticise someone for slow work
when that person is being paid in free food aid. A WFP report comments:
"Although established in the Plan of Operations, no work
norms are used in the conservation activities, and labour super-
vision is not always adequate in quantity and quality. The pre-
vailing attitude appears to be that food-aid gangs work at no
cost to anybody and therefore supervision is quite loose." (29)
The remarkably low standard of maintenance is sometimes due to the uncer-
tain allocation of responsibilities. For example, in his evaluation of a ten year,
$3,000,000, wells improvement project managed by CARE in Tunisia, a medical
doctor found that after six years "more than 80 per cent of wells have pump
failure. . . . with consequent pollution no different from that in unimproved
wells." He continued: "CARE recognised from its own past experience and from
that of others that maintenance was the key to providing continued potable
water. Consequently, it formed and trained several mobile teams in the course of
the projects, each team having been assigned to cover well and spring sites in
specified areas." (30) However, an inspection of the wells in a defined area revealed
that many of them were out of operation and that more than half the sample
contained "highly polluted water as evidenced by the presence of large numbers
of faecal coliform and/or faecal streptococci in the micro-biological analyses
done." (31) In his concluding discussion, Dr. Wolfe observes,

"Poor countries never have enough funds for all their needs
and well maintenance must be low on their list of priorities.

30
 In much of the third world, it seems the attitudes towards
wells is 'if the rich foreigners built them, it is their responsibility
to maintain'." (32)
Another more basic reason for the lack of interest in maintenance is that it
might actually be detrimental to sharecroppers' interests to improve land too
much. For example, in 1979, the Inter-American Foundation reported a case in
Haiti where peasant farmers participated in a FFW irrigation scheme, only to
find that the landowners then increased the rent. (33)
Even if food aid were available to 'finance' long-term maintenance - a solution
which challenges those who see it as an interim measure only this crucial prob-
lem of land tenure would still remain unsolved, while the poor quality of much
of the basic work would in many cases make maintenance impracticable.
The amount and type of employment generated by these public works de-
pends on the individual project. Projects such as roads appear to provide more
employment during the construction stage, in the short-term, while directly
productive projects such as irrigation create more once they are in operation.
Thus, some projects offer little long-term employment; even projects intended
to increase food production may not provide much more. An AID evaluation
report on Bangladesh gives one example.
"Generally it is assumed that increased agricultural production
leads to increased employment. The evaluation team has
learned that this is not always the case. In some parts of
Bangladesh a new irrigation canal will allow farmers to plant a
boro crop which is high yielding and lower risk than the aman
and aus crops he may have previously planted . . . He may
experience some increase in production but the labor require-
ments of the boro crop are less than the combined aman and
aus crops." (34)
Another AID report found that the amount of employment generated by
FFW in Bangladesh was "systematically over estimated" (35) , with one method
of estimating the total of work days giving a figure of 10.5 million, against
CARE's own estimate of 22.7 million. (36)
Thus, the employment actually created may fall short of the claims that are
made. In addition, the kind of work done can only be carried out in the dry
season. In the case of Bangladesh, this climatic limitation means that FFW may
overlap with periods when alternative employment opportunities are most
likely to be available. (37)
There are, of course, more positive aspects of FFW/public works. A great
many old, poor and unemployed people are enabled to take part in the schemes
(38) and women are sometimes given the chance to participate in work usually
reserved for men. At one time this was reported to be happening to a relatively
high degree in Bangladesh, although the numbers were never very large and by
1979 were dwindling rather than increasing. (39) Some of the projects are of
value to the community at large and employment is created in the short-term.

31
 In spite of these 'welfare' aspects, however, the claims made for the FFW/
public works contribution to development usually fail to stand up to scrutiny.
All too frequently people gain short-term benefits by participating in badly-
designed schemes which certainly will not provide any long-term advantage and
may even serve to undermine their position.

Community Development
In an article entitled "More calories, more protein, more progress", an AID
magazine described this aspect of FFW as follows:
"Many people lack food and many communities need work
done on projects. This combination makes possible the Food
for Work program. Under this program, Food for Peace
Commodities are used as payment for services rendered on
Community self-help projects." (40)
There is a certain overlap between public works and some community devel-
opment projects - both include road building, for example but in general the
latter are small and are run at a more local level.
There are a few examples of excellent FFW-promoted community develop-
ment work but there is concern about the motivation of groups which, with the
offer of food aid as an incentive, form themselves to carry out projects.
In Haiti, community development is carried out mainly by 'conseils comtnun-
autaires' community councils which sound the ideal type of group to sup-
port. Unfortunately, as an AID report says, "Councils are often formed with a
view to qualifying for food aid through work projects . . . Councils whose iden-
tity is linked to food aid tend to disappear when food aid is withdrawn." (41)
They are known in Haiti as konseys manjes, or food councils. This somewhat
'cart-before-the-horse' pattern applies also to the work performed to justify the
food aid. In 1978, a Caritas official described how the councils operate.
"They construct roads in order to receive food . . . Where
there is no more food, there can be no work. Goodbye food,
goodbye road! If they got [sic] food in order to finish a road,
they regret it as soon as they have finished the road. They
only then wish for the deterioration of the road so that they
can re-do it." (42)
This type of 'make-work' is found elsewhere and a similar analysis has been
made by an AID official in the Dominican Republic. There, FFW has been much
used for making roads. One agency supported the construction and repair of
almost 7,800 miles of access roads in the six years between 1972 and 1978. (43)
The official in an interview with the author commented that the voluntary
agencies had rebuilt every secondary road in the country at least twice and every
year had to rebuild them. He said it was "just an excuse to give out the food."
(44);

This is by no means an isolated case. In Guatemala, after the 1976 earthquake,

FFW caused problems, as a Mayan farmer explained. He needed help to harvest

32.
his crops but found difficulty getting it, partly because it was easier to do FFW
work instead.
". . . they didn't have to do much in the 'Food-for-Work'
program, just move around a little and they knew they would
get their food in the afternoon. On the other hand, if you go
to work in someone's fields, you have to work and it's hard
work. While with 'Food-for-Work' it's mostly just a question
of the person being there even if he doesn't do anything; but
in the afternoon he gets his ration... If they did work [on the
FFW project] they might be told to move some debris into
piles or something like that. The main thing was to get through
the day." (45)
In Lesotho a major programme of dam building to control erosion, road and
airstrip construction and tree-planting was undertaken from the late 1960s in
response to an emergency caused by drought. The author of a book on develop-
ment in Lesotho found that,
". . . the vast majority of the trees planted were cut down by
the Basuto or trampled by livestock long before they matured
. . . almost none of the dams were built in the areas hardest hit
by the drought, and . . . those that were built were scattered
through the country without rhyme or reason." (46)
Few of the dams, he says, were used for any of the purposes for which they
were intended. In one evaluation he read,
"[The] CARE chief in Lesotho . . . noted that people tended
to draw out the work to prolong their food wages, that most
of the dams were used for watering livestock, if at all, and that
they would have been ultimately cheaper to build with paid
labor. However, [he] also felt that the program was justified
because without food-for-work they would not have been
built at all, and that part of the purpose of the program was
to distribute food 'without the onus of charity'." (47)
This justification of inventing work to disguise the hand-out of food aid leads
all too easily to the disappearance of the project. While this might avoid "the onus
of charity", in the long run it might have two negative effects. The first is that
communities are left with monuments to their own incapacity to help themselves.
The second concerns a change in attitude and motivation on the part of the
communities and individuals involved which can seriously undermine alternative
approaches to development. The writer of the book on Lesotho goes on to des-
cribe the opinions of two Peace Crops volunteers about the dams.

". . . not only did the Basuto not know what the dams were
for but the arrival of food-for-work dam projects had negative
effects on nonwage community projects already in progress.
One of them said, 'People would be working on a project for
free, out of pride - gardens, water-supply systems and the like

33
 then the government would come in offering food to build
a road or a dam, and everybody would abandon the community
development project.' Both these men said that there was
nothing self-help about the food-for-work projects because
people only thought about the wages, and because they
would abandon genuine self-help projects for the food." (48)
Similar problems were encountered by a team of field workers who visited
the north west of Haiti in March 1978. A doctor reported to them what happen-
ed when a FFW project to help build contour canals was started. "All the center's
work with motivation was destroyed, and now that community will do nothing
without FFW." In another town the local development coordinator told the team
that FFW was an integral part of the programme "although agents said that FFW
ruins people." (49) The report ends by noting that "Everyone realised the detri-
mental effect that FFW has had on community action in the NW. . ." (50) A
1975 FAO report on the community development aspect of FFW in Haiti says
that,
". . . attempts to involve some of the surplus labor in FFW aid
projects have extremely deleterious effects on the peasant
communities and cause great erosion of the reservoir of mutual
service relationships of the traditional peasantry." (5i)
A person who had worked for a number of years with two agencies which use
food aid in Haiti described how the very mention of food aid can cause dissen-
sion within community groups.
"In the Central Plateau, an agricultural agent even had to make
representations to a CARE official to get him not to intervene
in the region. People were accustomed to meeting and discuss-
ing their problems. Just one meeting with this person, who
promised food aid, was enough to bring out differences in the
group. Each person wanted to be in charge of distribution, and
to achieve that, began to criticise his neighbour." (52)
The problems caused by food aid and the fact that good results are obtainable
without it are illustrated in this extract from a 1980 OXFAM report on a forestry
and agriculture project in West Africa:
"The project director observed that the use of food aid as an
incentive to farmers to participate in community development
work has distorted their conception of the value, long and
short term, of the work, and has concomitantly undermined
the interest that a farmer usually has in the future of his
community. Often, among farmers who have received food aid
in the past for participation in community development pro-
jects, the overriding concern is with food a i d . . . .
No food aid was offered to farmers participating in the project
and as a result, instead of revolving around food aid and its
distribution, the project spent its energy and time working

34
 with farmers interested in the immediate and future well-
being of their community. To a small project these two inter-
ests food aid and rural community development are
mutually exclusive. Interest in one precludes a genuine interest
in the other." (53)
The project director found that the solution was
"to work with farmers whose interest is not in receiving food
for their work, but rather in improving their farms and their
village with their work. Farmers with this latter interest, in
their community rather than in food aid, pursued their work
on run-off systems and are already having productive results
from their labors." (54)
The AID report on Haiti mentioned previously also comments on this aspect
of FFW its tendency to focus attention on the food itself rather than on
independent progress that might otherwise be made.
". . . the food for work focus of many councils tends to divert
attention away from the serious business of grass roots peasant
organisation and economic alternatives." (55)
A corollary of the motivation issue is the lack of maintenance which is as
much a problem with community development projects here as with FFW/public
works. In Haiti there is a phrase to describe what happens when the food aid
stops, 'Food [sic] suspendu, travailsuspendu' 'no more food, no more work'.
(56) Stevens likewise reports that one criticism made about the FFW road
building and improvement scheme in Lesotho "is that villagers now refuse to
maintain their roads without further food aid". (57)
As with public works, the choice of project is crucial and may affect the
quality of work performed. In Haiti, the emphasis on road-building has more
to do with the desire to distribute food aid than with the pursuit of well-planned
development aims; as in Lesotho, the onus of charity is avoided but at the
cost of 'make-work, or worse. The AID study on Haiti describes how, according
to food agency staff, on the island of La Gonave, "roadwork constitutes a
convenient method for readily assembling large numbers of workers and dis-
tributing considerable quantities of food". (58) This aspect of FFW, the report
says, "has generally had the effect of fostering long term work projects which
drag on and are somehow never completed. Roads, for example, include false
starts or traces which are later determined to be inadequate and recharted
along other paths, effectively extending the work project". (59) Thus on the
island, 300 km of jeep roads have been constructed although "there is no com-
mercial vehicular traffic of any kind". Local people tend to go on foot, and
goods are transported by boats or beasts of burden. Almost the only vehicles to
use the FFW road system were those of the food agency staff, Protestant pastors
and the occasional private motorcycle. (60)
All the above signs suggest that the projects are determined more by the
pressure to distribute food aid than by an objective appraisal of the needs and
priorities of the local community.

35
 It is possible that community-based FFW may actually worsen the lot of the
peasant farmer. A group of US volunteers surveyed one area of Haiti to discover
who had worked on a scheme to introduce soil conservation techniques. There
were 129 households which reported members who had been involved in the
work. The survey reported that FFW workers had been obliged to work on
community leaders' land for one day a week during the harvest and for four
other days on other projects. Workers were left little time to tend their own
gardens and "were relying on the food received from CARE or more honestly,
on the money obtained when that food was sold". (61) The report concludes,
"It is the opinion of volunteers working in the area that the
soil conservation project has been a detriment to the develop-
ment of the area. . . FFW has hurt the initiative of local
farmers. The project was also used by local community lead-
ers to oppress the rural peasants." (62)
Alternatively, there are examples of FFW stimulating or strengthening com-
munity development programmes. This has sometimes been the case in the
Dominican Republic (63) and in certain Indian projects, where an AID report
cites cases in which "the food served as a starting point for a process of develop-
ing a sense that people could exercise control over their own lives." (64)
One of the most striking of these cases is the Kottar Social Service Society in
Southern India, where food aid from CRS is used. Exceptionally good project
management has built on favourable local conditions - such as a high level of
formal education amongst the population as well as more equitable land-holding
patterns.
"The Kottar experience illustrates a beneficial use of food aid.
The food is targeted to nutritionally 'vulnerable' groups... It
is also linked to community organization and mobilization
behind an impressive range of self-help efforts." (65)
The author of the report concludes by explaining why this is an "isolated
success story".
"Alas, if the 'ingredients of success' are easy to identify, they
are very difficult to replicate. Simply to list them is to reveal
how rare they are individually, much less all together . . . The
Kottar Social Service Society and what it represents are more
the exception than the rule. If Kottar impresses us, we may
have to accept the fact that, as a model for emulation, it is
not transferable. The overall effect of considering the Kottar
experience is sobering rather than exhilarating." (66)
Whilst it may be that community development projects generally have to
settle for less than these standards of excellence, there are factors mentioned in
an AID/India report which are important for any responsible development pro-
ject. In contrasting the "best projects" with those FFW schemes which "appeared
to generate an attitude of utter reliance on help given from outside the commu-
nity", the evaluators identified three crucial characteristics; the "involvement of
[the] recipients at an early stage, the requirement that recipients contribute

36
their own resources and labor, and the provision for continuation of the project
after the termination of food donations". (6?)
An OXFAM field officer involved in a FFW scheme in India in 1981 identi-
fied local control and organisation of the programme as the one indispensable
characteristic of a valid food-aided project.
". . . this is so far the best and most beneficial programme for
the poor and the poorest in the rural areas provided the plan-
ning and execution is exclusively left to the organisation of the
poor . . . The FFW programme can also [sic] impoverish
people rather than helping them if proper safe-guards are not
taken up." (emphasis added)

Resettlement Projects
The arguments in favour of FFW can be most persuasively made in the case
of resettlement projects. People who are being resettled on unused or reclaimed
land may face food shortages in the first few years, before their crops have been
established. Food aid is provided to tide them over this period and to support
the construction of irrigation canals, schools and health clinics. The kind of work
undertaken is, therefore, similar to both public works and community develop-
ment.
The 1978 Food For Peace Annual Report describes a project in Morocco,
where considerable land improvement is being undertaken.
"The government is providing the materials, equipment, and
engineering skills. AID is providing Title II commodities and
a grant of $100,000; CRS is managing the program. The
people of Figuig are providing the volunteer manpower. These
community volunteers will receive Title II food on a self-help
basis during construction, and will share in the use of the re-
claimed land that will be divided among the farmers and herd-
ers living in the project area. Some 13,000 people inhabiting
these marginal areas on a subsistence economy will directly
benefit from the project." (68)
The WFP goes further and argues that the benefits of resettlement projects
are not merely physical.
"In the course of the development work, these new settlers
will have been inculcated with ideas of service to the commu-
nity and are therefore all the more ready to cooperate with
others in ensuring the success of the new settlement." (69)
Since settlers should soon be able to fend for themselves, society at large will
also benefit.
"These people will therefore cease to be a burden on the
national economy as underemployed and undernourished
workers and can look forward provided they are willing to
work and to learn to a better future for themselves and

37
 their families." (70)
However, there are problems associated with resettlement projects which can-
not be addressed by food aid as such - principally who makes the decisions
governing resettlement and whether the people want to be moved. It is not un-
known for governments to move people against their will.
The other major problem is encouraging self-sufficiency at the earliest pos-
sible date in order to ensure that food distribution is not institutionalised. This
can be difficult, as this case from a Somali project illustrates:
"They [the WFP mission] felt that it should, however, be
made clear to the Government that, after eight years of WFP
aid, there would be little possibility of further WFP aid after
1983, even if the project objectives of self-sufficiency in
income/food production had not been achieved by that time." (71)

Conclusions
Obviously, food aid can never hope to be very much more than a social
palliative, since it cannot itself address the causes of poverty or unemployment.
However, there is much evidence that food aid has been used with inadequate
awareness of the detrimental consequences that FFW projects can have on the
people who participate in them. Truly successful FFW schemes those in
which the participants benefit after the actual work is over - are the exception
rather than the rule; in the majority of cases, there is little or no improvement in
the living and working conditions of the poor.
Too frequently, people on FFW/public works projects are exploited as free
labour for those who are already relatively well-off. In many cases, the extremely
low levels of productivity indicate that the projects are providing 'make-work'
rather than furthering long-term development.
Whilst the provision of undemanding employment for those who might
otherwise by considered unemployable the old and disabled, for example
may be commendable in itself, it should not be confused with development.
It is welfare.
The products of FFW schemes frequently deteriorate and the development
benefits whether in practical or less tangible terms are therefore question-
able. Where lasting benefits are produced, they are often irrelevant and some-
times harmful to the poor who helped to create them.
As far as FFW/community development is concerned, the fact that local
people are by definition more likely to be involved in the planning is to some
extent a safeguard against the kind of misdirection of benefits associated with
FFW/public works. Nonetheless, there are two areas of caution:
1) it needs to be openly recognised that the very offer of food aid may
determine the motivation of the community leaders or otherwise
compromise the direction of projects, and
2) the risk of creating or encouraging projects which are dependent on
foreign food aid is a real one, to be avoided at all costs.

38
 In some cases, FFW projects have been initiated more to satisfy the desire to
distribute food than in response to a clear idea of how the work performed will
contribute to development. The AID report on India puts this explicitly.
"Repeatedly in interviews with project holders, we were told
that requests for projects were never refused except in the
cases of deliberate malfeasance. The US AID Food for Peace
Officer acknowledged that projects were often allocated
without adherence to a criterion of economic need, and
justified this by the difficulty of finding viable projects . . ." (72)
This chapter has not claimed that FFW cannot succeed under any circum-
stances. Rather, it has argued that the necessary conditions exist only rarely,
and that to intoduce food aid into projects which are not viable or cannot
handle it properly has been shown to be positively detrimental to the poor and
to development work in general.

39
Child health clinics which concentrate on the distribution of food aid foster the
idea that foreign food is more desirable than local products. Food handouts
detract from nutrition education.

40
 /MOTHER-CHILD # # # #
HEALTH mmmw
PROGRAMMES
FOOD AID AND MOTHER-CHILD HEALTH PROGRAMMES

T he biggest international effort to combat malnutrition in children is food-

aided supplementary feeding for pregnant women, nursing mothers and
children in the vulnerable under-five age group (hereafter referred to as MCH*).
In 1978-79 there were over 16 million participants, using US food aid alone. 0)
MCH programmes are conducted principally by voluntary agencies and WFP,
often in conjunction with local governments. MCH programmes accounted for
33% of US project food aid in financial terms in 1978-79 but for only 24% of
recipients. (2)Thus, MCH programmes are relatively expensive to operate.
MCH programmes through feeding centres and health clinics - distribute
food aid either in a ready-prepared form to be consumed at the centre, or as
rations to be taken home. Nutrition education is meant to constitute an impor-
tant part of these programmes. In theory, the children receive additional food
while their mothers learn how to feed their families better; the children's nutri-
tional condition improves and mothers are taught how to guard against sub-
sequent relapse. Thus, MCH programmes are supposed to combine short-term
relief feeding with long-term development through preventive education.
However, according to evaluations of the impact of MCH, practical results do
not follow so smoothly. Far from ensuring nutritional improvement and acting as
a means to promote health education over a longer period of time, this use of
food aid is unable to guarantee the former and tends to encourage the very
attitudes that run counter to long-term self-reliance.
Supplementary Feeding and Nutritional Improvement
The assumption that supplementary feeding will make a significant impact on
malnutrition is challenged by the findings of project evaluators and field work-
ers. In 1980, the CRS Medical Director for Sub-Sahara Africa reviewed his fif-
teen years' experience with food-aid nutrition programmes and noted:
"The question is: Does supplementary feeding, added to edu-
cation and the development process, provide the answer to the
[nutrition] problem? One would like to say Yes, but experi-
ence, and extensive literature on the subject, tells us that the
answer is No." (?)
A 1977 CARE report on its feeding programme in five countries - Colombia,
Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, India (Tamil Nadu) and Pakistan - compared
weight for height, height for age and weight for age of children participating for
less than five months, more than nine months and a control of non-participants.
*Other health programmes, not using food aid, are often also called MCH. In this chapter
MCH refers only to programmes using food aid.

41
"Few differences", says the report, "in nutritional status among the various
groups within each country are large enough to be significant on any of the
measures . . ." (4) The AID doctor in the Dominican Republic commented that
the findings "suggest that the CARE program is having little effect on the pre-
valence of malnutrition among children being fed". (5) An AID-funded evalu-
ation of MCH in Honduras found no particular difference between those children
who were and those who were not receiving the supplement. (6) Caritas in
Guatemala was unable to find any significant differences between children who
had been receiving food aid there for over 18 months and those who had not. (7)
A nutritionist surveyed two villages in Ghana: in one, a 'modernised' village,
food aid was given to pre-school children, while in the other, a remote and more
traditional village, there was no such programme. The levels of malnutrition in
children were found to be similar in both places, with 50% of them suffering
from mild malnutrition. (8) These findings were confirmed when the nutritionist
began a family health programme in twelve villages. Again she found as much
malnutrition in villages that had received supplementary food for three and a
half years as in those that had never received any. (9) The biggest MCH pro-
gramme in the world is in India. In 1978-79 it had over 8 million participants.
(10) A 1980 evaluation of it for the US Government, referring to MCH as "mas-
sive supplementation programs", states:
"Nutritional status does not seem to have improved, not even
for those who have received the Title II MCH ration more or
less regularly. The assumption that food aid could be 'targeted'
like a rifle shot at nutritionally vulnerable groups around the
world and therefore would improve their nutritional status
has not been supported in spite of the transfer of millions of
tons of food and herculean efforts by the volags [voluntary
agencies] to ensure its proper use." (n)
The report concludes that,
". . . the major objectives of Title II food in MCH programs,
that of improving health and nutritional status of the target
group are largely not achieved... This finding is confirmed by
much of the research done by Indian institutions, which failed
in most cases to find any but marginal nutritional impact of
MCH programs." 02)
A study of MCH in Morocco, conducted in 1979 for AID, drew the following
conclusion:
"In the context of the group of children who are intended
beneficiaries of the MCH Centres Sociaux Educatifs project,
MCH rations probably help children in normal nutritional
status and good general health to maintain that state, but do
little to improve the nutritional status of children suffering
from moderate malnutrition, and have no effect on severely
malnourished children." 03)
Thus, the major beneficiaries were those children already in relatively good

42
health; and since they were well nourished before the programme began, it does
not follow that they needed food aid. A subsequent AID report on the CRS-
sponsored MCH programme in Morocco did find significant nutritional improve-
ment due to the large size of the ration and effective nutrition education. How-
ever, 68% of the children were not malnourished to begin with. (14)
MCH programmes have sometimes had detrimental effects on participants.
A survey in the Dominican Republic, found that food aid was encouraging
malnutrition. Pre-school children were weighed monthly for two years. All
were malnourished and ate a ration at an MCH centre. The children did not
noticeably gain weight except during the mango and avocado seasons and when-
ever food aid stopped. After questioning the mothers, the nutritionist concluded
that when children received food aid, mothers tended to over estimate the value
of this foreign 'wonder food' and so fed them less local food. Whenever the food
aid failed to arrive, mothers would, as a matter of course, ensure that their
children had food, since they would never leave them unfed. This resulted in a
weight gain. The experiment was repeated elsewhere and the findings were con-
firmed with food aid there was no weight gain; without food aid weight
increased. (15)
Even where nutritional improvement has been noted, it may not last long and
children may simply regress to their former state of malnutrition once they leave
the programme. In the Philippines, where some improvement was found, AID
found that the "small amount of data gathered to assess [the long-term effect on
nutritional s t a t u s ] . . . do not suggest that program graduates continue to pro-
gress nutritionally, or even hold their own, once graduated from the program".
(16) In addition, many children in the vulnerable 6-11 month age group became
worse off during the feeding programme and the evaluators recommended that,
"CRS should mount a special investigative effort to determine
why such a large proportion of their 6-11 month olds regressed
in nutrition status (59%). CRS discovered this problem in the
course of one of its own evaluations and has indicated to the
team that they do intend to investigate. This should be done
fairly soon, since the basic objective of bringing normal and
mild 6-11 month olds into the program is to prevent mal-
nutrition." (17)
Displacement or 'leakage' of the ration is one of the major reasons why sup-
plementary feeding has not produced significant nutritional improvement.
Though the child's intake of food is meant to be increased by the amount of the
supplement, in practice this is impossible to guarantee. If the ration is eaten at
the centre, then the child may be given less to eat at home. If the food is taken
home, there is nothing to stop its being shared with other members of the family.
Either way, the ration becomes, in part, a substitute for local food and not a
supplement to it. The implications for local agriculture will be examined in
Chapter 8 but substitution itself defeats the object of supplementary feeding
programmes. A former UNRWA official has reported:
"Even that part of the food aid programme that UNRWA has

43
 traditionally believed to be particularly valuable, the EEC-
funded supplementary feeding programme. . . is of doubt-
ful value. Experience elsewhere in the world suggests that sup-
plementary feeding quickly turns into substitutional feeding,
the recipients of programmes simply getting less food at home.
In fact, evidence is growing that groups which do not receive
supplementary feeding usually enjoy the same nutritional
status as those of the same community who do; and UNRWA's
experience seems, at first glance, to be consistent with this
evidence. In 1978, a WHO report on the health needs of
Palestinian refugee children concluded that 'the growth and
development of the refugee children in east Jordan can be
taken to be not different from that of the general population
in that country and consequently the marked improvement in
the refugee children (since a previous study in 1963) is also
seen among non-refugee children' (i.e. children who do not
receive supplementary feeding)." 08)
An AID health sector assessment for the Dominican Republic calls attention to
the gap between the theory and the practice.
"Supplementary feeding programs are justified as being an
intervention that can provide immediate but temporary food
supplements to 'at risk' recipients until such a time that they
are no longer considered malnourished. It is the hope that by
providing food while offering some nutrition education, the
recipients will not be permanently dependent on the supple-
mentary feeding programs. However, the operation of the PL
480 Title II program in the Dominican Republic has in practice
become centered around food replacement rather than food
supplement." 09)
Since substitution is an important factor determining the high failure rate of
MCH in nutritional terms, some evaluators have suggested that increasing the
rations may be a way of overcoming the problem. The five-country CARE report
states:
"The primary explanation of why many children hadn't eaten
the ration in take-home feeding was that the mothers had run
out of food ahead of schedule due to sharing the child's
ration with the entire family . . . Rations need to be increased
in take-home feeding to assure that the supplies are not ex-
hausted ahead of schedule, and that the intended child gets fed
an adequate quantity." (20);
However, there are arguments which challenge the validity of this solution. In
1980, the Medical Director for CRS in the Sub-Sahara recognised the social
consequences of increasing food aid.
"In fact, there are limits to the amount of food aid you can
give a family for the child. These limits are set primarily by

44
 the administrative costs and by other considerations such as
sale and exchange of food commodities and disincentives to
local production." (21)
To increase rations of food aid may also have little impact. An evaluation of
the PL 480 feeding programme in Honduras states:
"Gain in weight (or weight loss) of 93 children was obtained at
one day care centre covering a period of 8 months. Even
though they were being fed three meals and snacks, only 51%
of the children met the standard increase in weight.... On the
other hand, 43% of the children lost weight during the 8-month
period." '(22) (emphasis added)
The lack of positive results may also be due to the foods used in MCH pro-
grammes. "Most of the PL 480 foods available for distribution are soy-fortified,
high protein foods." (23) Although suitable for medical interventions in cases of
severe malnutrition or protein-deficiency, these foods are no longer recommend-
ed in cases of slight malnutrition, where the immediate need is for a high calorie
intake. ". . . . where basic calories are deficient, many of the artificial protein-
enriched foods that are distributed are simply an expensive means of providing
calories." (24)

Targeting Food Aid Through MCH

Ensuring that food aid is precisely 'targeted' to those mothers and children
most in need is, as noted above, extremely difficult. In fact in many projects
little effort is made to do so. Criteria for selecting candidates for feeding pro-
grammes are frequently lax or even non-existent. An AID draft report on the
Dominican Republic comments:
"At present, in all three agencies, a needy person is one who
goes to a distribution center and expresses the need to be
included in a program (MCH or FFW)." (25)
In 1979, US Government evaluators in Tanzania noted:
"Weight, height, and age criteria for determining eligibility for
MCH food were often not followed in Tanzania. Frequently,
any child brought to the center was fed." (26)
The five-country CARE report emphasised this same point:
". . . the feeding programs enrol many children who are not
malnourished. This is primarily because no criteria are used to
target any of the programs to only the malnourished." (27)
In Upper Volta, Stevens observed that the majority of a sample population
surveyed had an acceptable weight on their first visit to the MCH centre, while
in Lesotho, "except among present attenders in the mountains, the number of
new entrants with an unacceptable body weight never exceeds 27 per cent of
those attending". (28) In other words, almost 3,000 of the 4,000 children need
not have been attending the centre. Stevens concludes that "the findings of the

45
CARE report are confirmed: many beneficiaries of supplementary feeding are
not malnourished at all". (29)
The AID-funded evaluation of the programme in India draws the same con-
clusions.
"We also observed that in many cases children were given food
supplementation on a first come first served basis rather than
being screened for participation on the basis of nutritional
need." (30)
The 1979 evaluation for AID of the programme in Morocco underlines the
point.
"No attempt to examine nutrition status enters into the selec-
tion of individual project participants, for example, or into the
general allocation of Title II commodities among provinces."
(31)

The question of the best age at which to enrol children on the programme
was noted in the five-country CARE report which observed that on-site feeding
programmes "are less likely to reach the most vulnerable younger preschooler
because of the difficulty of transporting the young toddler to the center daily".
(32) In 1972, an assessment for the US Government found that,
"A major problem of nutritional impact remains, which is
whether the MCH activities are really reaching the wean-
ing child between the ages of six and 36 months. . . Hel-
fenbein, in his nine-country study for CARE, expresses similar
doubts. David Call of Cornell Graduate School of Nutrition,
who has extensively studied nutrition intervention. . . . feels
that this most vulnerable sector of the most vulnerable group
is not being reached to any significant degree in current
Title II MCH efforts." (33)
One of the main recommendations made in this study was that,
"The age range of child beneficiaries under the maternal/
child health guidelines should be lowered to six months
through three years, rather than the 0-5 year guideline. . .
This measure should assure improved nutritional impact on
those truly most vulnerable." (34)
Seven years later, in 1979, the evaluation conducted for the US Government
in India concluded that "it should be recognised that few children under three
years are being reached by the program". (35) This is especially significant when
it is realized that in 1979 MCH projects in India being run by CARE and CRS
(those projects under review) accounted for over 6.5 million recipients, i.e.,
40% of all MCH participants receiving US food aid. (36)
However, the main criticisms directed at the value of supplementary feeding
do not concern the age group of the recipients or whether or not there is a con-
sequent improvement in health. The real discussion about the validity of MCH
should centre on whether it is a suitable solution to the problem of malnutrition

46
in the long term. Even if MCH had a positive effect on health, other factors
should be taken into account which still make it a highly questionable approach.
These include the cost in cash and staff time (see Chapter 6) and the fact that
the distribution of free foreign food is an inherent contradiction to the nutrition
education part of the programme.

Nutrition Education
Nutrition education is the principal means by which MCH programmes are
intended to contribute to development and to ensure that recipients do not
become dependent upon the supplements of donated food. The 1978 Annual
Report from the Food for Peace Office of the US Government states:
"In the developing countries food assistance provided through
Title I I . . . . in many instances has been the difference between
death or mere existence and improved nutrition and health.
However, feeding programs alone are insufficient as needy
peoples must also be helped. . . . to become self-sustaining
through increased food production and nutritional knowledge
necessary to put the food to its best uses. Title I I . . . . is dedi-
cated to alleviating the problem of chronic hunger . . . .
through supplementary feeding programs while providing
nutritional education...." (37)
Similarly, an AID statement on food aid to the Dominican Republic says:
"Where feasible, gardens are attached to the [MCH] centers
and maintained by the mothers who share the produce. Where
gardens are not practicable the nutrition lessons an integral
part of the feeding programs include information on nu-
tritious foods which can be grown at home." (38)
In practice, the education component has usually been found wanting. A
CWS/Dominican Republic report states that the MCH centres are "merely feeding
centers". (39) Other field reports tell a similar story. For example, the five-
country CARE report says:
"Nearly all the centers visited in the present survey claim to
be providing nutrition education to the mothers. However,
little evidence of nutrition education was observed except in
Colombia where nutrition education is an integral component
of the feeding program. . . Almost none of the centers visited
were measuring children. Therefore growth charts were not
being used to monitor the progress of beneficiaries nor to
educate mothers regarding the nutritional status of their
children." (40)
The evaluation done for AID of MCH in Honduras reported that,
"Educational activities are supposed to be required for each of
these centers. However, no education activity was observed in
the visits made by the field team to different centers." (41)

47
 The 1975 Annual Report from the Food for Peace Office relates how, in
India, the US voluntary agencies, together with the Government, were collabor-
ating in "mass nutrition education" (42) , yet in 1979, it was estimated that over
60% of the MCH programme under review in India amounted simply to food
distribution, with no other services being supplied, while of the remaining 40%,
less than one-quarter provided "some educational activities". (43) (emphasis
added) Therefore, only a small percentage of the total programme was giving
more than "occasional health and nutritional classes". (44)
The common response to such findings is that nutrition education should be
incorporated into MCH programmes. The evaluation on India recommends that
"programs which provide food alone should be upgraded to provide other health
and educational services". (45) This solution pays no attention either to the
reasons for the general lack of educational services, or to the difficulties in pro-
viding them. For example, the additional expense that such "up-grading" would
entail both financially and administratively might well be prohibitive. To
provide real health services for the 4,000,000 people registered on the India
programme and who are not currently receiving them is a colossal challenge.
However, there is evidence to suggest that to hand out free foreign food as
an incentive for health or nutrition education runs counter to long-term develop-
ment goals. It has been observed, in a number of countries, that mothers tend to
go to health centres for the food rather than for the related services. Thus,
motivation to attend may not necessarily outlive the provision of food.
An evaluation undertaken in Ethiopia found that " . . . women
coming to the distribution centers are paramountly concerned about
the food they are going to receive and take nutrition education as
one of the administrative constraints they have to go through to
get food". (46)
An AID survey in Guatemala reports that "at many Health Posts,
people will come in for treatment of a preventive kind only when
there is food available". (47)
In the Gambia, attendance of mothers at a CRS clinic dropped from
40 to 10 when it stopped distributing oil and gave away only rice.
(48)
A WFP report from Pakistan states that "Provision of food appears
to attract beneficiaries as could be seen from statistics available in
some centres showing a drop in attendance when the project was
interrupted". (49)
Just as on large programmes it is impossible to prevent food supplements
being used as substitutes, so the idea of using food aid as an incentive to attract
women to listen to nutrition classes is hard to put into practice. The donors'
desire to provide classes is a stronger motive than the recipients' wish to attend
them. It is not always clear what the education component is intended to achieve
or how it is of practical relevance to the beneficiaries. As a means of encourag-
ing changes in food habits it has not met with marked success. For example,
CARE has conducted research to find acceptable and effective ways of promot-

48
ing nutrition information and communicating the need for modest changes in
local feeding habits.
"Messages included were (1) introduction of solid foods into
the infant's diet after 6 months, and (2) introduction and/or
increased consumption of green leafy vegetables by pregnant
women. Two approaches were used: a positive, persuasive
approach was used in half the test area, while the other half
was exposed to a negative, shocking, fear-related approach...
After the campaign, a survey was conducted to evaluate the
message's impact. The shock approach was more successful
than the positive one and had better retention The
campaign increased awareness, but it did not change people's
food habits this was especially true in the case of intro-
ducing solid foods by 6 months." (50)
The five-country CARE report also found that "more mothers knew the
cause of malnutrition than what they could do to treat it". (51) Likewise, a
report submitted to the UN states that "sufficient documentation does exist
to conclude that often little behaviour change occurs even in the face of high
awareness." (52)
In the course of preparing a United Nations International Children's Emer-
gency Fund (UNICEF) document on MCH, its authors reviewed over 200 reports
on such programmes throughout the world. They found that where education
did exist, it was "usually directed toward appropriate usage and targeting of the
distributed foods". (53) For example, a WFP evaluation of the MCH programme
in Bangladesh states that, "mother's receptivity of the nutrition message and of
the advice given for the proper utilisation of the WFP ration appears to be very
good". (54) This is instruction for short-term needs rather than nutrition education
for long-term development. The advice does not equip the recipients for the day
when food aid stops. This exemplifies the contradiction implicit in the aim to
encourage independence by means of imported food aid. The AID health sector
assessment for the Dominican Republic noted,
"First, the foodstuffs used in the PL 480 Title II program are
not available in the local market. Therefore, educating mothers
in their use tends to create a permanent dependence upon
these imported items." (55).
Three experienced field workers in Guatemala likewise question the message
inherent in the use of imported food.
"Nutrition programs based on free foreign food convince
many mothers that their children can only be healthy if they
consume the foods given away in the program. Often these
foods are not available or would be prohibitively expensive if
the family were to try to buy the same thing locally." (56)
Well-documented cases of the use of baby foods in countries where condi-
tions are far from ideal, reveal the effects of attitudes like these. Not only are
these foods expensive, but it is impossible to ensure that women (many of whom

49
are illiterate) understand or follow the instructions on the packet, or that they
can guarantee the necessary sanitary conditions for the safe use of these artificial
foodstuffs. (57) A nurse who worked for two years in the OXFAM-funded Lake
Kenyatta Settlement Scheme in Kenya made the following observations:
"The distribution of dried milk runs into . . . problems. By
distributing milk in the CRS program, whatever we say in
talks about the dangers of not breast feeding we are unwit-
tingly condoning bottle feeding . . . [The mother] would be
better off to supplement the child's diet with eggs, locally
grown pulses and vegetables which would be greater in
quantity, and cheaper. However, to bottle feed is becoming a
status symbol..." (58)
An OXFAM field worker in North Yemen has described how a long-term
medical programme was undermined by food handouts.
"Two days a week this particular centre became a food dis-
tribution point rather than a health centre. It was completely
disrupted . . . there is no education associated with food dis-
tribution. Handouts quickly degenerate into a farce and
physical chaos, with hordes of women muling around trying
to get the food. And entirely the wrong ideas on nutrition are
encouraged. For four days a week, mothers are told not to
waste their money on infant formula and are encouraged to
breast-feed instead. You want this advice to be credible, and
then you spend the days handing out imported food. It just
doesn't make sense. Also, food aid promotes the belief that
development comes from the outside, and that foreign foods
are nutritionally preferable . . . in fact, they're often not even
appropriate, and certainly less so than foods locally available,
of which there is no shortage..." (59)
A major problem is that health centres frequently serve as food aid dispen-
saries. An evaluation of a nutrition education programme in Ethiopia attributed
its weakness in part to "the fact that it is mainly given at food distribution
centers". (60) This point was amplified:
"The general population seems to look [at] the activity of the
NFW (Nutrition Field Workers) [as] restricted to distribution
of relief foods only. Regarding nutrition education, the
understanding of the people is that NFW's presence is to give
instructions on ways of getting relief foods and no more." (61)
Sometimes, the availability of food aid undermines work already in progress.
A doctor working in Indonesia has written that an extensive nutrition project
in East Java, which started in 1979 had, after a year, been "generally recog-
nised" as a failure. This was attributed to "the presence of the food supplement
. . . . unfortunately the addition of PL 480 and other foods have totally diverted
the educational component, the basic purpose of the project, to one where village
people line up to receive free food". (62) Comparable problems are demonstrated

50
in a report from a field worker in Togo.
"We had a good group of women in Togo studying nutrition in
one village, but they heard that in another village about 10-15
kms away, a group of women receiving similar classes were also
receiving free milk powder. They suspected they were sup-
posed to receive the same stuff, so a lot of women quit coming
to the classes because they thought they'd been cheated." (63)
An OXFAM Field Director in Africa experienced similar difficulties. Relief
food aid was distributed in clinics where educational and vaccination programmes
had been working satisfactorily.
"Enormous damage can be done to on-going MCH programmes
by the sudden requirement to distribute free food. Clinic
attendances soared for the wrong reasons, some clinics turned
into virtual battle-grounds, and the benefits of steady edu-
cational and vaccination programmes were lost." (64)
The original field report on which this conclusion was based illustrates
another problem with free distribution programmes in general the risk of
encouraging self-centred behaviour rather than community-minded attitudes.
"(The health team) have an average presence of 300+ at the
clinics at present and are having trouble coping because they
are dishing out free food from the WFP/EEC etc. They are fed
up with the whole hand-out scene. Not only is it wrecking
their clinics, but it's changing the attitude of people towards
the Mission. Anyone who thinks the population are standing
gratefully in line to receive their rations is sadly mistaken.
'Give it to us - it's ours' is rather the cry and not a helping
hand is offered to load or unload the trucks. It's pretty soul-
destroying for everybody!" (65)
Such changes in attitude have been noted by field workers elsewhere. A
Caritas report written in 1979 for a parish in Guatemala suggested that "given
the difficulties and quarrels that food distribution generates, dependency it
creates and resignation it produces. . .", it should be discontinued at MCH
centres. (66) One of the reasons for the decision to stop food distribution at
some centres in the Philippines was that it was "often a cause of quarrels and
disunity". (67)
In fact, alternative measures for improving health care are frequently devised
when the distribution of food is suspended or decreased.
MCH centres in one area of the Dominican Republic stopped distri-
buting food aid because, according to a survey, it was encouraging
malnutrition. Instead, emphasis was placed on teaching mothers how
to grow their own vegetables, improve hygiene and prepare better
balanced meals. This was a practical way of promoting nutrition and
a direct approach to education. A survey conducted in 1978 showed
that in a sample of over 5,000 children, an additional 22% had

51
 reached 'normal' nutritional status during the four years following
the cessation of food aid distribution. There had also been a drop of
5% in the number of children with mild malnutrition (from 49 to
44%); of 10% in those with moderate malnutrition (from 22 to 12%);
and of 3.25% in those with severe malnutrition (from 4 to 0.75%).
The positive trend in nutritional terms was significant. Haemoglo-
bin levels also showed a marked improvement. Special recuperation
centres were set up for the treatment of severely malnourished
children. A key feature of these was teaching mothers how to keep
their children in good health after leaving the centre. In about 95%
of the cases, this was achieved. More important in development
terms, brothers and sisters also showed some improvement without
their receiving special care or food aid. This indicates that the
education had been effective in the short-term and had been retained
and applied over a long period of time. Not only was this done with-
out food distribution but the closing of the feeding centres was the
first and possibly essential step towards achieving such results. (68)
A project in Nepal stopped the distribution of powdered milk and
CSM (Corn-Soy Milk) and began to make more use of locally avail-
able food in its work. The clinic staff found that, once relieved of
food distribution duties, they were able to spend more time with
mothers in their homes and could thus learn from them about their
problems and devote more time to encouraging them how best to
use the food they already had. (69)
Malnutrition rates in one area of Ghana are reported to have dropp-
ed substantially through an organised health programme involving
only local foods. (70)
In Jamaica, where Government policy in the early 1970s promoted
self-reliance in food, a nutritionist found that when food prices in
St. James' Parish almost doubled and food aid was cut back by
two-thirds, malnutrition levels in rural areas decreased as people
were encouraged to grow and eat more of their own food. "What
did in fact happen from 1973 to 1975 was not an increase in mal-
nutrition in St. James, but a decrease. In the rural areas the nutri-
tional status of children improved significantly. Serious forms of
malnutrition . . . . decreased by 50 percent from 9.5 percent to
4.5 percent . . . Urban rates remained about 4 percent with no
significant deterioration." (71)
These examples demonstrate that it is possible to improve the effectiveness of
MCH centres without relying on food aid and suggest that free food distribution
may inhibit local initiatives to devise more suitable approaches to the problems.
Nevertheless, according to the authors of the UNICEF report on supple-
mentary feeding, there may be advantages enjoyed by the participants in MCH
which are not adequately measured at present.

52
 "We remain unconvinced that either the true effects or the full
benefits of food distribution programs have really been mea-
sured in the reported studies. Unless our current concepts of
physiology, our current estimates of energy requirements, or
our current approaches to the estimation of need in the indi-
vidual and the population are seriously in error, the existing
programs must be having effects that are not measured in
terms of such parameters as body size and morbidity/mortal-
ity changes. We have argued in our report that another out-
come, measured in only one of the studies we reviewed, may
be voluntary activity (including play in children) and that
this may affect psycho-social development and family/com-
munity interactions." (72).
However, the unintended disadvantages of MCH programmes must be included
in evaluating their effectiveness. It would be perverse to insist that such indefin-
able benefits as 'voluntary activity' and 'play in children' should in themselves
justify the continuation of programmes which fail to achieve their primary and
tangible objectives.
Apart from calls for increasing the quantities of the food, better monitoring
of programmes and wide-ranging evaluations of their impact, the only new sug-
gestion to date for improving MCH comes from the CRS Medical Director for
Sub-Sahara Africa who puts forward the idea of a "contractual food assistance
program".
"A contractual food assistance program works like this: The
parents of the child are made aware that the increased family
revenue represented by the foods entails certain added repon-
sibilities and obligations which are satisfied by submitting
themselves to an educational program and by upgrading the
feeding and the general care of the child." (73)
The major difference between this and existing approaches to supplementary
feeding is that here it is proposed that,
"When failure [to demonstrate satisfactory growth in the
child] is due to a default in utilizing the increased revenue for
the betterment of the child, as it happens when the foods are
sold, exchanged or used as a sheer substitution of the tradi-
tional diet, you apply suitable and acceptable measures aimed
at re-inforcing the agreed on obligations." (74)
Whether this would prove any more practicable than the current methods is
a matter for speculation.
The purpose of channelling large inputs of food aid through the MCH system
is to improve the nutritional status of the recipients. At present, emphasis is still
placed on why MCH has failed to guarantee these improvements and on ways in
which the programme can be made more effective in short-term nutritional
respects.

53
 Comments from three different reports help to highlight the inherent prob-
lems of MCH programmes which call their usefulness into question whether or
not there is an improvement in nutrition levels. The first is from a letter written
by a priest in the Philippines, explaining why, after almost six years, it had been
decided to discontinue food distribution through MCH.
"It cannot be denied, that from the beginning the TMCHP
[Targeted Maternal and Child Health Program] could not
really be seen as the most ideal approach to development. The
distribution of food commodities, aside of being not too
effective in the fight against malnutrition, has been experienc-
ed in these past few years as a factor that creates dependency
rather than self-reliance. It may be functional as a temporary
emergency help, but in the long run it becomes rather an
obstacle than a stimulance to development." (75)
Secondly, an AID paper states:
"To attack the nutrition problem piecemeal and ad hoc is to
tinker with the machinery without making any really signifi-
cant improvement in nutrition and in health. To have programs
that 'do good' does not necessarily achieve significant and
lasting results. Impact can be beneficial in some respects with-
out really coming to grips with the problem, providing thereby
only an illusion of progress." (76)
Thirdly, Maxwell, in his study of the nutritional impact of food aid, partly based
on research carried out for WFP, concludes:
"First, existing supplementary feeding reaches only a very
small proportion of the priority target group. Second, supple-
mentary feeding has in practice proved largely ineffective in
nutritional terms. Third, even where it has been nutritionally
effective supplementary feeding has not proved to be cost-
effective. Fourth, small non-nutritional benefits may be bal-
anced by non-nutritional costs. It would seem that a more
frontal attack on poverty is needed. But what if such an attack
is not forthcoming? Can supplementary feeding then be a way
for international agencies to provide a palliative? [The evidence
suggests] that the answer to this question is 'no'." (77)
In conclusion, MCH should be considered as a feeding rather than a nutrition
activity. A summary of findings from a variety of reports emphasises that,
MCH has generally had little effect on malnutrition.
Many children in the programme are not malnourished to begin
with.
Significantly, the most vulnerable 1-3 age group is not being reached.
Millions of recipients, especially in India, are merely getting food
handouts. To classify them as MCH participants is to describe them
incorrectly.

54
 Very often there is no nutrition education given.
Education linked to food distribution is usually instruction in how
to use the food aid it is not nutrition education.
Where nutrition education is taking place, the distribution of food
aid tends to work against the nutrition message food distribution
and nutrition education are generally incompatible.
The continued emphasis on protein-fortified foods has not kept pace
with nutritional findings over the last 20 years. Protein-fortified
supplementary feeding is largely irrelevant except in cases of severe
malnutrition.
The costs in cash and staff time are high, higher than those of alter-
native strategies which have proved successful.
The case might yet be made for a carefully targeted and monitored programme
to treat severely malnourished children. This might be carried out in Nutrition
Recuperation Centres (NRCs).
"It appears that NRCs are very effective in accelerating growth
rates and recuperating third-degree malnourished children . . . .
NRCs . . . . are specially geared and distinctively equipped to
meet the particular needs of the severely malnourished, who
must be attended to. Furthermore, the percentage of third-
degree malnourished children in the population is relatively
small; thus the higher per-child costs still can be managed
within total government budgetary constraints." (78)
This chapter has aimed to show that there is much misunderstanding about
the objectives and achievements of MCH feeding. By trying to feed the millions,
programmes fail to reach many severely malnourished children. As a 1980
UNICEF report says,
"Undoubtedly .. . many segments of the population which are
in real need of additional food are not being reached by exist-
ing programmes, and perhaps could not be reached by pro-
grammes structured as they are." (79)
Nothing could more clearly underline the need for programmes such as these to
be revised and redirected.

55
In developing countries it is the better off families that can afford the luxury of
sending their children to school. Very poor children, who would benefit most
from additional food, must work to help support their families.

56
 SCHOOL AND OTHER MM
INSTITUTIONAL CC
FEEDING
I nstitutional feeding, principally through schools, is a major means by
which food aid is distributed. In 1978-79, 18.4 million children were
receiving US food aid in the form of school lunches. 0) Thus, school feeding
reaches more people than the US-sponsored MCH programme, that is, 28% of all
recipients of US project food aid. (2) In many countries, such as Egypt, Upper
Volta, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Haiti, school feeding is the largest
project food aid programme sponsored by the US. (3) Supplementary feeding is
meant to improve the nutritional status of the beneficiaries and to act as an in-
centive to children to attend school. Most of it is distributed through primary
schools although WFP has expanded its work to include secondary schools,
universities and colleges.
"Food aid to schools, universities and training institutions
helps to improve proficiency and regularity of attendance,
reduces the dropout rate and increases the range of candidates
for entry. Simultaneously, it improves their state of nutrition
and helps to promote good dietary habits. Furthermore, as a
result of WFP assistance, funds previously used for food can be
released for investment in the expansion of existing education
and training facilities or the creation of new ones." (4)
Donor agencies also provide food aid to other institutions such as day-care
centres, orphanages, old people's homes and hospitals. In a study of US volun-
tary aid, John Sommer says of these institutional programmes:
"They are concerned with long-term relief (more properly
described as welfare) in the sense that people confined to such
institutions would not have the necessary sustenance of life
without such aid, and that in most cases the institutions are
unlikely to ever become self-supporting." (5)
According to figures for 1978-79, recipients in such institutions accounted
for only 2% of the total number of recipients of US project food aid. (6)
School feeding appears to be a convenient way of operating a food aid
programme - the distribution network and the target group already exist. How-
ever, it is important to consider the nature of the target group - the children
who go to school. In many countries, compulsory education is purely nominal;
there is usually a large discrepancy between the attendance rates of children
from urban and of those from rural areas, and girls' education is frequently taken
less seriously than that of their male contemporaries.
Stevens reports that of the four countries he studied (Tunisia, Lesotho,

57
Botswana and Upper Volta), the highest rate of enrolment was achieved by
Tunisia, with 70-75% of the primary school age population attending school.
In Upper Volta, only 10% attended. But these figures conceal important region-
al variations, which mirror differences in relative affluence. The richer coastal
governorates of Tunisia had an attendance rate of about 75%, whereas the poor-
er interior had a figure of 57%. "Similarly, in Upper Volta the low national
figure conceals an even lower 4 per cent for the Sahel department in the ex-
treme north of the country." (7) In Botswana, pupils tended to come from
richer households. Stevens concludes that,
". . . . even if all schools were covered, the lunch programme
would still miss substantial sections of the population, and
there is every reason to believe that those children who do not
attend school are more vulnerable than those who do . . . .
This would not necessarily be a major criticism if at least the
school population contained a substantial proportion of poor-
er people even if it excluded the poorest.... However, there is
some evidence that the lunch programme does not simply miss
the poorest groups, but positively discriminates against them
because primary school children come from essentially non-
vulnerable backgrounds." (8),
Reports from other countries verify Stevens' conclusion. The biggest US
school feeding programme is in India, where there are over 9,000,000 recipients.
(9) Nevertheless, a 1979 US Government investigation states that in India,
"AID has often noted that children from the lowest strata often do not attend
school". (10) The same report adds that in Sri Lanka "the school feeding pro-
gram has become overextended and is feeding a lot of children who really are
not that needy. . ." (H) Thus, school feeding contains, in many countries, what
Stevens calls a "built-in bias" against the poor. (12)
If children receiving food aid are often not the financially vulnerable, it is
important to ask whether they are the most nutritionally vulnerable. At the
start of its 1981 Food Crusade, the Executive Director of CARE stated:
"As little as $5 provides 600 nutritious biscuits to school
children. Only $15 supplies a nourishing bowl of porridge for
300 school children for a week, and often this supplemental
food makes a significant difference in a child's health and
survival as well as learning ability." (13).
However, children of pre-school age are the most nutritionally vulnerable. A
WFP report on a school feeding programme in Brazil involving 229,000 recipi-
ents, notes this aspect. "It is said that those at the age of school entry suffer in
their studies from their poor nutritional status on entry. This suggests that great-
er emphasis should be placed on pre-school feeding for younger children." (H)
Moreover, school feeding does not provide children with food throughout the
year; most feeding takes place only when classes are in progress usually for no
more than five days a week and only during those months when school is in ses-
sion. Indeed, in Brazil, meals are provided for only 144 days a year.

58
 " the nutritional improvement brought about by the
WFP supplement was found by the mission to be minimal.
This is due to the rather small fraction of the year (much less
than half) in which the children are receiving the food, and to
the small quantities of food on average reaching each child on
those days when there is feeding (less than 200 calories per
day, or less that 10 percent of daily requirements)." (15)
The nutritional impact of supplementary feeding has been examined in the
discussion of MCH programmes in Chapter 4. The same conclusion that any
actual impact is generally slight - may be made for school feeding. Indeed,
supplementary feeding in schools may so interfere with the children's normal
diet that they do better during school vacation when the supplement is unavail-
able. An AID draft report on food aid in the Philippines, for the period 1970-80,
concludes its analysis of the nutritional impact of school feeding as follows:
"Analysis of the data from nine schools in Ilocos Sur, the
Bicol and Manila revealed that during the 1st year of program
participation no statistically significant change occurred in the
nutrition status of Grade I Grade IV beneficiaries. Of the
nine schools, two revealed a statistically significant increase in
nutritional status (Pin Yahan (CRS) and B.P. Ragasa (CARE)),
two other schools showed a statistically significant decline,
and five schools revealed no change...
The analysis revealed no consistent trends in nutritional status
during the months of school vacation that would suggest that
the program is having a maintenance effect... beneficiaries of
three of the schools in the Bicol were better off during the
school vacation when program participation came to an end
What were the nutritional trends of the children when
they returned to school during the following year? The analy-
sis revealed no statistically significant change in nutrition status
of beneficiaries during the second year of program participa-
tion . . . For one school, it was possible to obtain longitudinal
data for a four year period. . . The analysis revealed no statis-
tically significant change in nutrition status of beneficaries
participating in the program over a four year time period..."
(16) (original emphasis)
Of all the schools studied, only one showed a statistically significant nutri-
tional improvement over a two year period and this was one in the control group
where no food aid was distributed. 0?)
One writer notes that in India, ". . . . all too often the target groups do not
benefit much; children fed at school often receive correspondingly less to eat
at home, or take the food home where it is divided among the family". 08) An
analyst who studied food aid projects for the FAO in nine countries, made a
similar observation in Senegal, calling it a "fact of apparently world-wide valid-
ity". (19)

59
 The argument for school feeding, however, does not rest solely on its nutri-
tional impact but on the incentive it is assumed to provide for pupils to attend
school and the education benefits this will bring. There is some evidence of a
positive impact on school attendance as a result of supplementary feeding.
Maxwell reports that,
"The evidence on this question is largely qualitative but two
studies in India by Prodipto Roy have found evidence of a
5-10% increase in attendance, especially in the lower classes of
primary schools and among tribal children. The studies were
not able to find any impact on performance, though one
study at a school with a well organized programme, in Coim-
batore, India, did find significant improvements in mental
ability and behavioural characteristics." (20)
According to WFP, primary school enrolment in Mauritania in the years from
1967 to 1979 (while school feeding was in progress) increased in a "spectacular"
manner from 10.3% to an estimated 23%. (20.
The 1979 evaluation done for AID in India also found that the impact of
school feeding on attendance was satisfactory.
"From numerous visits and inquiries the team has concluded
that the main objective and the main benefit of the MDM
[mid-day meal] program is the role of the food as an incentive
to the child himself and to his parents for his attendance at
school. Everyone GOI [Government of India] and local
officials, CARE personnel, teachers and parents was unani-
mous on this point."(22)
However, the 1980 AID assessment of the educational impact of school feeding
in India questioned the extent of these improvements. For example, in the
State of Madhya Pradesh, ". . . . it took approximately seven months of partici-
pation in the program to increase school attendance by a single day". (23) The
investigation concluded,
" the evidence lends little support for a strong
relationship between increasing school attendance and the
presence of the school feeding program. Thus, while the pro-
gram appears to have increased attendance rates, reduced
absentee rates, and stabilized the month-to-month variation in
attendance and enrolment, particularly among the lower
primary grades, these impacts, even though significant, are
extremely small." (24)
Other reports do not identify a significant increase in school attendance dur-
ing the provision of the food supplement. The WFP/Brazil report found that "It
does not seem that the provision of food had a very strong influence in increas-
ing school attendance".(25) There are a number of contributory factors. First,
there is the rate of absenteeism, ". . . one cause being the calls upon older
children to help their poor parents either at home or by going out to earn". (26)

60
Second, there is the problem of pupils repeating a year, " . . . . about half of the
children have to remain in the same grade for a repeated year, particularly in the
lower grades". C27) Third, absenteeism and repeating can lead to pupils dropping
out entirely from the school system. These problems are common to many
countries, despite the fact that school feeding is widespread.
- "In Africa between 10 and 46 per cent of pupils repeat their first
year in primary school, in Latin America between 18 and 35 per
cent. The final year of primary school... is the favourite for repeti-
tion. Between 20 and 54 per cent of African pupils repeat primary
grade 6 . . . " (28)
- In 1971, AID reported that in the Dominican Republic, of 800,000
children enrolled in primary school nearly 70% v/ere in the first
three classes. It was estimated that only 17% of them would com-
plete their primary education, while in rural areas the figure would
be 7%. (29)
- In Haiti in 1977, only four out of every 100 who started primary
school completed it successfully. (30)
- In Guatemala only 4% of rural children and 50% of urban children
complete their primary education. (31)
- In four Latin American countries studied by the United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) the
average success rate for completing primary school was 50% for
urban and 20% for rural children. (32)
- In Egypt where a high proportion of children attend school, only
53% of primary school age children in 1973 reached the final year.
(33)
- The AID/India report quotes the primary school drop-out rate as
60%. (34)
Given the above figures, the aim of using school feeding as a means to improve
attendance and performance in those children who go to school seems more
ambitious than might at first appear.
Practical difficulties arise if the school feeding system is not stable enough to
act as a reliable distribution mechanism. The smooth running of the programme
depends upon a host of imponderables, any one of which can seriously disrupt
the project. The 1981 WFP/Brazil report illustrates just how intractible such pro-
blems can be.
"Within the average [amount of food eaten] there are consid-
erable variations, far in excess of what is an acceptable devia-
tion, due to practical difficulties, in the amount and in the
type of the food commodities reaching each child.
In some schools, second helpings were not permitted. The
main reason was that the kitchen facilities, including the size
of cooking utensils, were inadequate to permit cooking of

61
 greater quantities, or even to provide each child with a full
plate at the first helping. In quite a number of schools the
children have to bring their own plate or receptacle, so that
the amount they eat, in the absence of a second helping, de-
pends on the size of their receptacle." (35)
In the Central African Republic, a school feeding project was hampered by
the "dire lack of communication between the central project office and the
provinces which, compounded with the irregular supplies of commodities, [led]
to gross deviations from project modalities and misinterpretations of project
objectives". (36) At the macro-level, these problems included irregular supplies,
"deficient operating accounts" and "substantial losses" due to the combined
effects of pilfering, damage, insect infestation and unauthorised sales. (37) iAt
the micro-level, the problems were also severe, although the project had been
in existence for 5 years.
"The mission observed in most canteens visited that the limit-
ed food available was distributed to all or a majority of chil-
dren and students on a rotating basis by dividing them in five
groups, each receiving a meal once a week. This of course is
not only contrary to the principle of selection, with a result
that the needy students are deprived of daily meals, but it pro-
vides no basis for achieving the project objectives, whether
educational or nutritional. . . . It is hardly necessary to add
that, when in operation, the canteens usually serve only WFP
commodities without supplementary local food, and there is
no attempt to observe the WFP-prescribed rations." (38).
A school feeding programme of 14 years' standing in Botswana also experienc-
ed operational difficulties.
"School kitchens could be better designed so that they cause
less smoke; many cooks, even in schools with new kitchens,
still prefer to prepare the food outside, unless it is raining. The
few schools that are without kitchens do not have food on wet
days. Cooks should be taught to conserve wood, brought by
the pupils, by not cooking blended food for a long time, as is
the custom with traditional porridges." (39)
In an account of a WFP programme in Senegal, the author states that,
"Although the school year started in October, none of the
canteens was yet functioning at the beginning of November.
Theoretically, the number of meals served was to be five per
week, but we found that three out of six canteens provided
only four meals a week. On a surprise visit, we found that five
out of six of the schools in our sample served no lunch at all,
although there was no serious reason why the canteens were
not functioning." (to)

62
Conclusions

Children who receive regular meals at school in addition to those they nor-
mally get at home clearly benefit from this form of supplementary feeding.
However, it should be recognised that in many developing countries, this parti-
cular method of distribution tends to be biased against the poor, who are less
likely to attend school and who are more likely to leave prematurely. In addition,
operational difficulties mean that often there is no satisfactorily-organised
school feeding in progress.
Possibly, the provision of school meals does act as an incentive to start
school. However, any success is undercut by the high drop-out rates that still
occur. (The figures given in this chapter refer only to primary schools; the sec-
ondary school population is even smaller.) In addition, management of this food
has proved difficult, especially in Africa. (41) If the aim is to encourage poor chil-
dren to study, it might make better sense to pay for their school fees rather than
to provide food aid to those who are already able to attend.
Unlike school feeding, welfare feeding through other institutions is uncompli-
cated. It does not attempt to turn food aid into development but to do what
only food can do feed people in need. Yet, this uncomplicated welfare feeding
accounts for only an insignificant proportion of total project food aid.
The problems described in this chapter illustrate the fact that in practice,
school feeding programmes are unable to transcend the limitations of the system
through which they operate. The ready-made distribution mechanism that is
assumed to be an advantage in fact is structurally incapable of reaching the poor.

63
The practicalities of distributing food aid rations can take up time development
workers could use better. Community workers and health personnel are expected
to take responsibility for measuring out rations and keeping records, when
they should be concentrating on the jobs they were trained for.

64
 THE COST OF
PROJECT mmmm^
FOOD A\D %%%%%
A pproximately 500,000,000 is spent each year on project food aid. Al-
# 1 though the food is donated, it has to be bought by donor governments at
commercial prices. In 1979, the cost including processing to the US Govern-
ment of Title II food aid was $393,000,000. (i) An additional cost is sea-freight,
which, in 1979, came to over $209,000,000, or 53% of the value of the food. (2)
Once it has been delivered to the recipient country, there are further costs,
including warehousing and internal transport, and the food requires considerable
administration at every stage. In 1976, the total running costs of the US food aid
programme in Guatemala were conservatively estimated at 89% of the cost of
the food itself (Table II).
Not all of these costs are borne by the donors. Once US food aid is in the
recipient country, US handling agencies usually take over transport and distri-
bution. In many cases, recipient governments will offset the agencies' admini-
strative costs, both in the country and the US. For example, CARE-India is re-
ported to have 'repatriated' to the US over $1,100,000 from the Indian Govern-
ment for the period 1979-80. (3) In 1979 the combined contribution to one
agency alone from the Indian Government and States was $41,000,000 (Table III).
WFP pays for the food to be transported to the port of unloading and some-
times makes a contribution towards internal transport costs, particularly in the
least developed countries. However, the recipient government is always expected
to share financial responsibility for projects; often its contribution outweighs by
several times the value of the food input. (4) The EEC in the majority of cases
contributes to transport and distribution costs. (5)
The associated costs of project food aid are, therefore, high in relation to the
amount of food donated. Costs are also subject to annual increases, largely due
to inflation. Thus in 1978, it cost the US Government $328,000,000 to buy
1.67 million tonnes of Title II commoditiies and in the following year it cost
$393,000,000 to buy only 1.46 million tonnes; this represents an increase per
tonne of 37%. (6) Costs for sea-freight increased even more. In 1978, they rep-
resented 40% of the value of the food; the following year this had gone up to
53%. (7) This trend has been reported by WFP, which announced that "ocean
transport costs increased by 13% during 1980" and that administrative costs
went up by 15%. (8) In presenting these figures the Executive Director of WFP
commented:
"In the light of strong inflationary trends, it seems evident
that expenditure on these items will continue to rise in 1981
and subsequent years." (9)

65
 TABLE O: ESTIMATED NON-FOOD COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PL480/GUATEMALA PROGRAMME*
1. SEA FREIGHT Shipment from USA to Guatemalan ports paid by Government of the United 35.0%
States.
2. INLAND Guatemalan ports to inland, regional distribution points; 4.0%
TRANSPORT minimum $350,000 cash paid by Guatemalan Government.
3. FOOD MANAGEMENT Warehousing, distribution, management and other costs 45.0%
(reported by CARE and CRS as having combined value of $3.2
million per year in cash and in-kind contributions).
4. LOSSES (a) Marine (during ocean transport). Exact costs are unknown; 0.3%
this % is an estimate only of normal marine insurance rates.
(b) Commodity Condemnation (based on the 1,000/tons of maize 4.0%
declared unfit for human consumption by Guatemalan Government
OS
in 1976, taken as a percentage of the overall 1976 programme).
(c) During customs and inland transport. 0.4%
(d) Spoilage at inland points** 0.3%
OVERHEADS of US Dept. of Agriculture, of Dept. of State, through AID,
Washington and Guatemala, and of CRS and CARE New York, cannot be
estimated but probably represent a substantial amount of additional investment.
89.0%
in addition
* Note: Based on 1977 figures; cash costs are converted to percentages of food costs. to the cost
of the food
These figures are estimates.
** AID advises this may go as high as 25%; thus, the total percentage - 89% - is probably
too conservative.
FROM: Jo Froman et al., General Review: PL480 Food Assistance in Guatemala,
Antigua, Guatemala, June 1977, p. 17.
 Recipient countries do not remain immune from the consequences of infla-
tion in donor countries. For example, the Dominican Republic received over
$94,000,000 of US project food aid between 1962 and 1978. (io) The Govern-
ment of the Dominican Republic provided free warehousing for the food and
also contributed over $13,000,000 to the distributing agencies, principally to
support supplementary feeding programmes. 0 0 Also, to offset freight and dis-
tribution costs, beneficiaries of projects made contributions of money officially
estimated, for 1973-74, at $550,000. 02) Substantial costs accumulated over the
period, owing to the use of trained personnel, such as health workers and teach-
ers, to distribute food aid. By 1977, as a result of inflation, the Governments
both of the US and the Dominican Republic were paying considerably more for
much less food aid.
"In 1969/70, 30,000 tons of food aid cost $7.5m, and the
Dominican Republic Government contributed an estimated
$868,000.
In 1976/77, 23,000 tons cost $9.65m, and the Dominican
Republic Government contributed $1.2m." (13)
The high costs of the food aid approach to development might be justifiable
if the projects achieved their objectives. However, as has been shown,very often
projects are unsuccessful and even when they do achieve their aims, the approach
is very expensive.
Maxwell quotes a report which found that in India it cost half as much again
to prevent a child's death through supplementary feeding as it would by pro-
viding basic medical services, and that "for children aged 1-3 years, nutrition
supplementation was up to 11 times more expensive in terms of lives saved than
medical services". 04);Maxwell concludes that "even where it has been nutrition-
ally effective supplementary feeding has not proved to be cost-effective", (is)
Since supplementary feeding programmes involve so many people who are not
malnourished, costs are much higher than they would be if projects were effec-
tively targeted. When factors inhibiting the efficiency of the programme were
taken into account, it was calculated that the recuperation of one child in an
MCH nutrition centre in Guatemala would cost S2,671. 06) The five-country
CARE report referred to in Chapter 4 estimated that the costs of non-targeted
MCH programmes may be up to ten times greater than those of projects which
concentrate on feeding malnourished people. 0?) It concluded:
"Unless ways are found to target programs to more malnour-
ished children, to reduce the number of family members shar-
ing the ration, to reduce substitution, and to increase the
number of children eating the ration daily, it is doubtful that
feeding programs can be a cost effective means of reducing the
rates of malnutrition amongst preschoolers in developing
countries." 08)
The report quotes the cost per head of supplementary feeding for malnour-
ished children in the Dominican Republic as $66-$74 a year. 09) As noted in
Chapter 4 this programme has little nutritional impact. Thus costs recur as

67
children return year after year to the programme and other members of their
families are also enrolled. The emphasis on distributing food rather than on pre-
vention evidently provides no solution here.
By comparison a smaller nutrition project in the same country has had good
results. This treats carefully identified malnourished children at recuperation
centres. It costs $100 a child for the three-month recuperation period, on the
surface a relatively high figure. However, no food aid is used in this project
(except for a little Dutch milk powder), and the emphasis is on intensive health
education concentrating on locally available foods. In this case about 95% of
the children remain well-nourished after leaving the centre and their brothers
and sisters also improve. (20)
School feeding programmes are also badly targeted for combating malnutri-
tion in the very poor or the nutritionally vulnerable. The school feeding pro-
gramme in India accounts for over half the world total of participants in such
projects. (2i) However, a recent AID evaluation states:
"The evidence on the feeding program's impacts on measures
of school efficiency such as improved attendance, reduced
attrition, and better academic performance is, at worst, meager
and inconclusive. At best, it suggests that the program has had a
minimal impact on its principal objectives, which, if compared
to the costs of the program, represents an extremely ineffec-
tive and inefficient use of scarce resources." (22)
The evaluator points out that in India "the average state government in
1978/79 spent Rs.164 per student to educate a child in primary school. Com-
pared to this, an expenditure of Rs.60 per year to feed a child in the Mid Day
Meal Program was sizeable, equivalent to over one-third the amount of educa-
tional resources expended on that child". (23) He concludes:
"While it may be argued that the food or commodity compo-
nent would not be converted into funds to increase expendi-
tures on primary education, this food is not a free good. It does
have other uses.. ." (24)
In FFW projects, cost-effectiveness in development terms will ultimately
depend on whether they provide long-term benefits to the people who helped to
build them. One of the conclusions of an AID report of FFW in Bangladesh is
that the marketing effects of FFW road projects were "negligible and hardly
feasible to measure" because the roads deteriorated too quickly to permit any
changes in marketing practices. (25) In the absence of proper maintenance, many
of the works constructed through FFW lost their effectiveness after two to
three years. (26)
In such cases, the cost of implementing a programme may exceed the value
of the benefits it produces. Stevens reports a large-scale FFW project in Bots-
wana where "the value of the public works created did not offset the cost of the
project; indeed, it would have been cheaper for the government to have handed
out the food aid free of charge than it was to make people work for it". (27)
Even excluding the costs of the food aid, transport and government personnel,

68
 TABLE ffl: STATE GOVERNMENTS AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIA INPUTS INTO CARE, SCHOOL FEEDING
AND MCH PROGRAMMES(1)
(Value in 1979 Dollars)
State Governments Government of India Total (States and Gpvt^
of India)

School Feeding Pre-school (MCH)

Indigenous Personnel Indigenous Personnel Balahar Personnel Cash Grants Indigenous Personnel
Food and Food and (4) and Food and
Inputs Overheads Inputs Overheads Overheads Inputs Overheads
F
(2) (3) (2) (3)

1976 8,872,153 7,042,409 5,217,267 7,120,661 1,925,000 16,014,420 14,163,070

1977 9,654,275 8,601,768 5,609,025 7,062,562 2,750,000 18,013,300 15,664,330
1978 15,069,880 10,482,146 10,585,250 17,054,445 2,865,000 750,000 3,078,600 28,520,125 31,365,125
1979 20,897,740 14,865,027 15,861,020 18,337,226 2,865,000 932,500 6,913,377 40,352,510 41,053,130

(1) CARE Fiscal Year 80 Programme Plan.

(2) Indigenous Food Inputs refers to direct purchases of local foods to supplement Title II food inputs.
(3) Personnel and Overheads refers to logistical support in terms of transport, storage and personnel.
(4) Balahar is an indigenous food product manufactured using 85% Title II food and 15% indigenous food
The values shown here are those of the Government of India's indigenous inputs.
From: An Evaluation Report of the P.L. 480 Title II program in India,
Community Systems Foundation, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June, 1979, p.24.
the project cost about $30,000 more than it was worth " . . . in terms of the
value of works produced". (2*)
The opportunity cost of food aid is also high. The food alone requires con-
siderable administration in both donor and recipient countries. Often, recipient
governments have to provide personnel as well as cash to support the distribution.
The potential waste is especially high with skilled people such as nurses, doctors
and teachers, obliged to devote attention to routine distribution of food. For
example, a general review of nutrition rehabilitation centres found that "much
more attention by staff is given to feeding and caring for centre children than to
education of their mothers. . ." (29) A WFP report on a $19,000,000 feeding
programme in the Pakistan notes that distribution "appears to be rather time
consuming for lady health visitors (nurses) and other staff. (3) A WFP eval-
uation of a large school feeding programme in the Philippines found that food
distribution had "substantially increased the workload of the teachers. . . In
order to implement the project activities satisfactorily, some sacrifices have to
be made in regard to curricular activities of the school (e.g. home economics
teachers being obliged to curtail their teaching hours in the subject)". (3i)
WFP reported similar shortcomings in its health programme in Afghanistan
between 1972 and 1979, there was an average of 57,600 recipients a year in a
programme costing WFP alone a total of $10.5 million.
"The distribution of rations by the medical and paramedical
staff of the institutions takes a considerable portion of their
time, often at the expense of carrying out their other duties...
As a result of the administrative burden faced by medical and
paramedical staff most institutions failed to keep proper re-
cords of cases of malnourishment, and food stuffs were there-
fore often distributed without regard to malnourishment." (32)
Maxwell indicates that this problem is shared by all personnel associated with
food distribution, ranging from "planners, administrators and nutritionists at the
central government level . . . to school teachers and workers in health clinics,
who are expected to service supplementary feeding programmes in addition to
their normal duties". (33) He quotes a report which relates
". . . the misery of the teachers responsible for the school
lunch programme in Orissa, with no government grant for a
cook and no assistance with the administrative burdens of food
collection or storage; the general impression is that there is
little time for actual teaching. Similar effects may be found in
health clinics, which leaves the net effect of supplementary
feeding very much in question." (34)
In this way, development projects lose the benefit of the skills of many of the
field workers they employ. Engaging extra staff for the purpose of distributing
food aid might be an acceptable option but only when projects show a distinct
likelihood of achieving their targets, since it would increase overheads substan-
tially.
Recipient governments also make large financial contributions to projects.

70
For example, the Mauritanian Government is spending $690,000 a year to sup-
port a WFP school feeding programme. To transport, store and deliver $1.2 mil-
lion of food aid over a period of two years and nine months cost a total of
$2.4 million, $1.9 million of which was met by the Government. (35) Yet, the
WFP report notes, "purchases of local foods [to be included in the school-
lunch] are very limited because of shortage of funds". (36)
Government money spent on food aid projects is not necessarily unavailable
for alternative development work. Choices have to be made on the basis of
relative benefits. The following example from India illustrates this point.
"People work out feeding programs at a cost of $x per recip-
ient per year, with y recipients; they then tell us that for only
$xy we can solve a large share of the country's nutritional
problems. But $xy in India usually comes to a figure of hun-
dreds of millions. An important question is whether India can
afford simply to give away $200 million or $400 million in a
feeding program; whether, if such sums are available, they
should not be used as the wages of useful employment that
creates durable assets." (37)
The AID evaluation on school feeding in India also argues that "it is very
important that the benefits from the feeding program be weighed against alter-
native uses for these resources". (38) In some cases, a fraction of the money spent
by donors on buying and transporting the food could be better invested in de-
velopment projects which are likely to become independent of foreign assistance.
(39) Some supplementary feeding programmes could be run more cheaply if
they used locally available foods. Stevens illustrates for Botswana the economic
feasibility of using such foods in place of WFP commodities:
"In Botswana, the primary school lunch ration is 150 grammes
CSM/CSB (corn soya blend) and 15 grammes of vegetable oil
per child per day. It has been calculated that the corn soya
milk could be replaced by a mixture of maize (65 per cent)
and cow peas (35 per cent) which would have almost identical
nutritional properties. The notional WFP value of this ration
is some R11.38 per year; the local replacement cost of the
proxy ration is only R5.58. Although maize is an acceptable
nutritional substitute, it requires more processing that CSM,
and the cost of this has to be taken into account." (40)
It has also been calculated that it costs twice as much to provide Indian school
children with milk through food aid as it would through making local purchases.
"The American farmer receives approximately 25 cents US for
a litre of milk. It costs 8 cents for processing, another 7 cents
for transportation including trucking and various shipping
charges to India. Another 6 cents is added to the cost when
you consider CARE's administration, the reimbursement for
that from the government of West Bengal and the various
American bureaucrats who also 'nurse' the milk along the way.

71
 Finally, CARE pays 13 cents per litre . . . . to Mother Milk
Dairy. This adds up to a total cost of 60 cents per litre. . .
just under twice as much that Mother Milk Dairy charges for
its own processed milk in the Calcutta market place." (41)
To make use of local foods whenever possible would keep costs down as well
as positively promoting long-term development initiatives. It would also reduce
the danger of a project's becoming dependent on supplies of exotic blended
foods which, as Stevens says, "are not available outside the realm of food aid".
(42)

Conclusions
The poor performance of supplementary feeding programmes in nutritional
and educational terms means that they have proved highly expensive and ineffi-
cient. At present, a vast amount of money is spent each year on transporting and
distributing food aid to people who are not malnourished. The efficiency of such
programmes might be improved if they were effectively targeted and supervised,
as was discussed in Chapter 4. This would entail an increase in administrative
overheads, at least in the initial stages, but such projects would be judged by the
quality of their performance as nutrition intervention measures rather than by
the number of people they claimed to feed.
FFW projects are often deficient in the planning and securing of long-term
benefits. In some cases, money is needed more urgently than food and would
make a more appropriate contribution to development. Food commodities can
be most effectively invested as relief items in disasters, when they directly answer
a need.
The associated costs of project food aid, particularly transport and admini-
stration, have been subject to sharp increases in recent years. Transport costs
would be reduced if donors made local or regional purchases of food whenever
possible. Often, foods suitable for supplementary feeding can be produced from
within the recipient country. In view of current inflationary trends, it would
seem prudent to make long-term investments in such schemes to avoid depen-
dence on supplies of foreign foods.
The distribution of food aid to individual recipients makes extensive and mun-
dane demands on the time of skilled personnel. The opportunity cost of pro-
ject food aid is, then, high.
As a tool for development, therefore, project food aid has proved to be
expensive and inefficient.

72
 THE AI^N/IGEMENT MMM
OF WWW
FOOD AW
A A anagement problems in food aid programmes are many and various. They
/ I range from breakdowns, such as the failure to supply spare parts for trans-
port vehicles, to the issue of whether a project is ultimately of benefit to the
poor. This chapter concentrates on three major problems:
First, the practical difficulty of ensuring that large consignments of
food from Europe and North America arrive on time in the villages
for which they are destined. Given the complexities of handling and
moving huge quantities of food across the world, food aid can be
a logistical nightmare for everyone involved.
Second, the need to ensure that targeting is accurate and that dis-
tribution is efficiently monitored.
Third, the fundamental conceptual problem. Food distribution must
be integrated with both short-term relief and long-term development
objectives. It is only when these aims are clearly defined and under-
stood that the validity of a food-aided project in development terms
can be evaluated.

Logistical Problems
It is easy to sympathise with officials faced with organising the transport and
distribution of bulky, perishable and easily misappropriated commodities which
need careful supervision and comprehensive infrastructural support such as ware-
housing, vehicles and security. For example, a WFP-funded supplementary feed-
ing programme in Pakistan, which began in July 1976 at a cost of $19 million
over a four year period, had, as its broad objectives, a reduction in the high
incidence of malnutrition amongst preschool children and expectant and nursing
mothers, the promotion of better feeding practices through nutrition education
and an increase in attendances at health centres with a consequent improvement
in the health of the beneficiaries. Three schemes were to be launched to reach a
total of 550,000 people. In 1980 WFP reported:
"For several reasons the original commitment [of food aid],
which was expected to be utilized in one year, could not be
consumed in even three years, viz:
a) Scheme A faced major difficulties in implementation and could
therefore absorb only a fraction of the envisaged quantities of com-
modities. In the beginning there were shortages of counterpart funds
for transport and personnel. WFP shipments arrived too early, thus
allowing the project authorities too little time to prepare for imple-

73
 mentation and to make adequate budgetary allocations. Also, since
the project was planned for one year only, the project authorities
hesitated to make financial allocations for the following year. Until
recently, Kashmir could not provide funds for the transport of wheat
and distributed only dried skim milk and butter oil. Food alloca-
tions to provinces and centres were not always made proportion-
ately to the stipulated ration scale leading to an early exhaustion of
under-allocated foodstuffs. Also, whenever only one commodity was
available at the centres distribution was stopped. The slow start of
the project necessitated loans and transfers of dried skim milk and
butter oil to other WFP-assisted projects in Pakistan in order to
avoid losses. However, when the project gained pace and Scheme A
was ready to absorb more quantities, timely repayments could not
be made and new shipments were not yet forthcoming . . .
b) Scheme B did not fully materialize. When WFP-supplied wheat
reached the centres, CARE was already terminating the distribution
of WSDM [whey-soy drink mix] and vegetable oil. In Baluchistan
there was hardly any centre where wheat was distributed together
with food from CARE for more than two months, and in Sind WFP
wheat arrived when CARE food was no longer available. For these
and other reasons, the quantities of wheat distributed were very
limited.
c) Scheme C has never been implemented. Responsibility for its imple-
mentation changed during the planning stage. Finally, when a firm
had been identified for the manufacture of 'PROTOLAC [a low-
cost, protein-rich food mixture] its capacity was found to be inade-
quate for the quantities envisaged." 0)
Although most other food projects will not experience as many problems as
this one, the example illustrates what can go wrong with the ambitious goal of
turning food aid into development; the problems for this project occurred
before the development aspect had begun.
These logistical difficulties are not confined either to country, agency or
project-type. For example, a WFP FFW scheme to construct mule trails and a
jeep track in the hills of Nepal was planned to last five years and cost WFP $3.7
million with the local government contributing over $960,000 more.
The progress report submitted after two years and two months made the
following comment:
"Another problem faced by the project insofar as WFP oper-
ations are concerned has been the late arrival of WFP commod-
ities. Since commencement of the project only one shipment
from a donor country has been received at the time requested.
Shipments have not only arrived many months after required,
but also different commodities have arrived at widely different
times." (2)
US Government auditors were told by officials in Kerala, India, that,

74
Large consignments of food aid can place heavy demands on local transport and
storage facilities. In the extreme case of Kampuchea in 1979-80, urgent emergency
relief food could not be delivered until fleets of trucks were provided.

75
 ". . . because the State Government is very poor, it will only
authorize shipments of full truck-loads of grain or oil from the
depot to district or sub district level. Moreover, once the grain
or oil reaches the district or subdistrict level, it is not redis-
tributed, for the same reasons of economy. We were told that
this situation tends to result in the grains being shipped to one
end of the State and oil to another. As a result, both CARE
and CRS were experiencing a widespread lack of o i l . . .
We noted that some district and subdistrict storage areas had
no oil in stock. Other areas had large stocks of oil which had
not been distributed because of inadequate grain supplies to
distribute. Still other locations had almost no grain or oil.
[One] CARE warehouse contained 76 cartons of oil . . . but
only 75 bags of title II blended foods . . . Similarly, a CRS
warehouse . . . had 3000 bags of grain, but had been out of
oil for three months. Yet, other CARE and CRS warehouses
that we visited in Kerala had large stocks of grain or oil, or
both." (3)
That there is too much food aid is also one of the managerial problems to be
faced. The US must, by congressional mandate, deliver a minimum mandated
tonnage of project food aid each year, whether it is needed or not. By 1982,1.7
million tons must be distributed. In 1979, the US Government auditors described
the difficulties the mandate had caused:
"The minimum tonnage distribution requirement is also putting
pressure on AID and the volags to distribute more commodities.
For example, India officials recently told the volags that they
would assume responsibility for much of the volag food-for-
work programs. This decision was apparently designed to use
up some of India's existing wheat surpluses, which are becom-
ing huge. As soon as this decision had been made, however,
AID and the volags programed substantial increases for MCH
and school feeding in India which essentially made up for the
shortage. This indicated that the desire to maintain existing
worldwide program levels because of the minimum tonnage
requirement was a strong motivating force in reprograming.
AID officials acknowledged that without the India reprogram-
ings, they could not have met the legislated minimum." (4)

The EEC does not manage its own projects but hands over the food aid to
governments and other agencies such as the WFP. In their Special Report on
Community Food Aid, the EEC auditors noted that:
"750 tonnes of milk powder sent as emergency aid were still
not used two months after arrival as the recipient country did
not have the necessary means of transport.
The same delivery suffered seriously in unloading because the
port had no handling equipment.

76
 In one country 100 out of 500 tonnes of milk powder were
dumped into the sea for lack of means of transport...
250 out of 500 tonnes of vitaminized milk delivered to an
organization were still in store in insecure conditions five
months later. The Commission delegate wrote that a large
proportion of the sacks were torn and milk was being thrown
away by the t o n n e . . . .
In many cases use of the aid is put at risk because neither the
local authorities nor the Commission delegate are informed
beforehand when ships are to arrive." (5)
Quite apart from failing to attain its immediate objectives, food aid which
goes astray in this way is expensive in time, manpower and administrative costs
and makes no direct contribution to development.

Targeting and Monitoring

Concern about the lack of accurate and adequate reporting and monitoring
pervades a great many project food aid documents. Stevens reports that in both
Upper Volta and Tunisia, systematic records of deliveries of food aid to indivi-
dual institutions are not kept. (6) In Upper Volta, "it is difficult to obtain any
useful data on the distribution of food for nutrition" and no records are avail-
able on participants in FFW schemes. (?) Work records are not collated for FFW
in Lesotho. (8) On MCH programmes, " . . . in none of the four countries studied
are records kept to indicate supply and demand . . . " (9)
A lack of reporting means that serious divergences may exist between the
theory and the practice of a given project. This is illustrated by an account of a
WFP project in Brazil intended to provide nutrition education and supplementary
feeding to primary school children.
"Record keeping, accounting, data retrieval and analysis, and
information generally available to enable management to con-
trol proper distribution of food and planning for the replenish-
ment of stock centrally and in schools are all seriously inade-
quate. There even seemed to be a lack of full understanding at
certain levels that the rate of utilization of WFP commodities
is much lower than planned." (io)
Lack of adequate planning on FFW projects may mean that work-norms have
not been established or that rations are not standardised. A progress report on a
WFP project in Sri Lanka illustrates the former.
"In the formative stage of the schemes, estimates were made
of the man-days required to carry them out in conformity
with standard work norms. As rations are distributed for days
worked, food is allocated on the basis of these estimates. Not
infrequently, they have been far off the mark, resulting in over
or under-allocations of food. Where the estimates were too
high, it appears that in many cases the entire excessive alloca-

77
 tion was nevertheless distributed. The mission has the impres-
sion that the estimates were often made 'from the desk', with-
out field survey." (ii)
An interim evaluation of a WFP project in Senegal exemplifies the operational
difficulties of standardising rations.
" . . . the mission found that the ration scale was quite often
not adhered to, the reasons being either a wrong interpretation
of the instructions, or the feeling that the established ration
was insufficient, or because the exact calculation for the num-
ber of man-days worked appeared to be too time-consuming.
The ration actually distributed varied between one fourth and
10 times the stipulated family ration. While these are extreme
cases, there was a general tendency to distribute an increased
ration." 02)
An evaluation team in Honduras was unable to find sufficient data on file
and, in order to begin work, had to develop original information in or from the
feeding centres. Its report to AID noted that:
"While there are occasional supervisory visits on the part of
CARE, a review of the supervisory reports which had been
made on the centers visited by the team indicate that every
report stated that conditions were satisfactory. However, the
team found that the conditions in many centers were far
below the standards which were required and should have been
reported as such in the supervisory report." (13)
Similarly, field workers in the Caribbean checked the application lists for
MCH food aid and found that "not one single list was correct, names of non-
existent people, 'pregnant mothers' sixty years old, etc., etc.".,(i4)
Describing a field trip to MCH centres in the Dominican Republic, an AID
official noted in his report:
"Many regular recipients were interviewed, and the survey
discloses that: (l)They do not know where the food comes
from. (2)They do not know why they are receiving it. (3)They
have not received visit [s] from the social workers' group. (4)
They do not receive enough food." I(15)
In Bangladesh, the author of an AID report described what happened when
he went to evaluate a water tank project in Pabna. "A visit to that embankment
revealed that although it was reported completed it was not." 06) Another tank
was, therefore, chosen for the evaluation. "The project was reported completed,
but in fact very little earthwork was done." 07)
One reason for the inadequacy of much of the reporting is that, at times,
field workers are simply unable to account for the food.
"Even CARE's field representative for emergency relief in
Uganda admitted, 'there are no controls. We don't know what
happens to the food after it is distributed to the local leaders'." (18)

78
Occasionally, large amounts of food are lost through rotting, bad storage, etc.
More often, the losses arise through 'misappropriation'. In some countries, this
reaches alarming proportions. In Bangladesh, estimates of the percentage of
misappropriated food aid vary from 30% to 75%. The 1979 AID report on FFW
in Bangladesh found that, unless there was some basic error in the data, there
was "a very strong indication that less than 70% of the wheat withdrawn for
FFW finds its way to the laborers". (19) Thus of the 240,000 tons of wheat used
in the 1979 dry-season for FFW, at least 72,000 might have gone astray.
Labourers on a FFW project in Bangladesh were asked if they had benefited
from the work. "No, they said, their lives hadn't improved [now there was a new
road]; all they knew was that they were supposed to be paid six pounds of wheat
a day and they'd only got three. No one saw any accounts. No one knew what
had happened to the rest of the food." (20) The AID/Bangladesh report mention-
ed above urged the case more strongly.
"It's been concluded that the project records at present cannot
be expected to reflect the actual facts regarding a project and
therefore cannot be used as a basis for supervision. On the
contrary the inherently false recording works more as a loop-
hole for misappropriation." (21)
The former principal WFP officer for 23 African countries echoed this conclusion.
"A great number of annual audited accounts (possibly most -
if not all) about utilisation of our main resources food - are
presented from the field with the inclusion of manipulated
figures." (22)
Losses, he stated, including diversions and unauthorised distribution and sales,
were often many times greater than were reported and accounts were "fiction".
(23) Moreover, the easy misappropriation actually encouraged dishonesty. Another
food aid official described how this could happen:
"In almost every country that I have been in, the tendency is
for the Project Manager, once he is appointed, to bring in all
his closest relatives. The whole set-up becomes a family affair.
Even if store keepers and field inspectors were not basically
corrupt, they would soon be, for the manager quickly finds
many lucrative ways of utilising WFP commodities and his
storekeepers are obliged to obey all his orders (for the illegal
disposal of WFP commodities) or go." (24)
In Ghana, the large-scale misappropriation of food aid sent after a drought in
1977, eventually led to its discontinuation there. (25)
In Haiti, misappropriation takes place at all levels. In late 1978, an OXFAM
staff member commented:
"I was watching an American brother overseeing the distribu-
tion of food aid to a group of workers on an FFW project. Oil
and three types of food were being handed out by the foreman,
who organised the work party. The brother had a clip board

79
 and conscientiously ticked off each allocation against each
worker's name.
He said he tried to do the job carefully because the food had
been given by American taxpayers. I asked how he set about
estimating whether the work done was a full day's work and
he said that he trusted the foreman to do that. I noticed that
as a particular group of workers came round for each food
item someone would distract the brother's attention while the
foreman whipped extra portions into their bags. I asked the
brother if every worker was supposed to get the same ration
and he said 'yes'. 'In that case you're being cheated by your
foreman', I replied. He admitted that this was possible and
added that he always took the precaution of paying out less
than the proper daily rate to the workers to make up for it. In
other words, both sides, the brother and the workers, were on
the fiddle!" (26)
Elsewhere in Haiti, food aid has often disappeared before it reached its destin-
ation. In 1978, food aid workers in Port-au-Prince spoke of a certain street corner
where lorries slow down allowing people waiting for them to remove entire sacks
of food aid. (27) This was apparently quite common practice. In Haiti, only food
from Germany is apparently delivered in reasonable quantities to the correct
recipients. Losses are between 20% and 30%, and are considered to be much
lower than those suffered by other agencies. (28)
It is impossible to eradicate misappropriation. As Stevens comments, "nothing
falls off the back of a lorry more easily than a sack of food aid!" (29) Lack of
reporting makes misappropriation even easier. However, the fact that the food is
free encourages what the donors call corruption. Free gifts cannot be stolen.
When the food arrives in large amounts without careful attention to need or the
level of local production, it is not surprising that it is treated casually. When the
need is greater, the temptation to divert supplies for profit is natural, and only
the most stringent monitoring will ensure that all the food reaches those for whom
it is intended. Losses are frequently high. The EEC auditors noted that,
" . . . during a visit by the Court, the local authorities agreed
that out of 1,000 tonnes of cereals provided free by the Com-
munity 44% disappeared en route or rotted in store..." (30)
The problem might be alleviated if the food were sold rather than given away
as this would encourage proper accounting. However, the size of the programmes
involving millions of people - tends to diminish the chances of effective mon-
itoring and supervision.

The Conceptual Problem: Programme Objectives and Evaluation

Project food aid is an attempt to turn a relief item into a tool for long-term
development. It is commodity-oriented, an indirect approach to the problems of
poverty and malnutrition. The food could be seen as an advantage, since it can
be used as a flexible component in projects as varied as providing food supple-

80
merits to school children or as payment to workers on land-improvement schemes.
However, this flexibility may act as a double disadvantage; firstly, it encourages
people to think that the food can do more than merely feed people, and second-
ly, it encourages the thought that food-aided projects can simultaneously fulfil
several quite different objectives. Vagueness with regard to goals compounds the
practical difficulty of ensuring effective monitoring, and in turn the possibility
of qualitative and decisive evaluations is further delayed. As a result, projects
may drift on without ever proving their claims and without being challenged.
For example, the US Mid Day Meal programme in India has been in existence
for 20 years and at its peak, in 1978, was reaching over 11 million children.
However, as an AID report noted in 1980:
"One of the most frequently cited reasons for supporting the
Mid Day Meal Program is its impact on the enrolment of dis-
advantaged children in school. It is astonishing that this
relationship has never been analyzed." (31)
It is a responsibility of the donors to guarantee that food aid is used properly.
To do this, projects need regular evaluation not only of their objectives but also
of their social and economic impact. However,
"WFP does not have the capacity to monitor closely the eco-
nomic and social aspects of the projects it assists. Furthermore,
government ministries and agencies responsible for project
implementation and monitoring in the poorest countries to
which most WFP aid is directed may not have the financial and
human resources for frequent assessment of a project's progress,
especially social assessment, beyond the minimum required for
their six-monthly or yearly reports to WFP headquarters." (32)
And the EEC auditors stress the urgent need to check "that aid does effectively
meet the needs that it is intended to meet". (33) However, they add that,
" . . . in view of the inadequacy of local administrations and of
the reports provided by recipients, attainment of this latter
objective will remain illusory unless there is to be an army of
Community auditors." (34)
On available evidence, the performance of the Indian school feeding program-
me would not justify the cost of a thorough evaluation, were it possible to make
one. The AID report cited above says:
"First, the data to adequately identify the impacts are simply,
for the most part, unavailable. The feeding program started in
India nearly two decades ago. How it has affected attendance
rates, health status, and academic performance will remain
shrouded in darkness in the absence of baseline and longitu-
dinal data.
Second, the feeding program is expensive relative to India's
per student investment in primary education. The program
would have to have had a fairly substantial impact on objectives

81
 such as enrolment and attendance to be cost-effective. The
evaluation work to date does not make one sanguine about
finding such evidence." (35)
When records do exist, they may not provide the information that is required
to chart the success of a project. As a WFP general review states:
"A simple count of the number of food recipients in a supple-
mentary feeding project may show that targets have been met,
when the actual objective of the project to improve the
nutritional status of the poorest sector has not." (36)
Definition of objectives can often prove to be over-ambitious or confused.
The UNICEF survey on supplementary feeding programmes noted:
"We would argue that a serious failing of many programs now
operating is that the real objectives have not been clearly iden-
tified and probably have not been sufficiently considered in
program design." (37)
In some cases, the short-term and long-term goals of programmes are of doubt-
ful practical and conceptual compatibility for example, the integration of edu-
cation about improved dietary habits and gifts of food. A WFP paper expresses
this problem.
"Given that most supplementary feeding projects designed for
nutritional crisis intervention have difficulty, for a number of
valid reasons, even delivering the basic health and nutrition ser-
vices they are assumed to provide, the expectation that they
can also be linked to major educational, training, or income-
generating activities is probably unrealistic. It may be better to
keep the two types of activities conceptually (and program-
matically) distinct." (38)
These contradictions highlight the differences between relief feeding and
development work and suggest that the donors have difficulty in reconciling the
two aspects. Evaluations, particularly those made on behalf of the US Govern-
ment, often comment on the lack of clear objectives and a failure to put these in
order of priority. In the case of US food aid, this is attributed in part to the con-
flicting purposes of the whole programme, as defined by Title II of PL 480. (39)
Inevitably, such conflict underlies the selection and management of individual
projects.
In 1979, US Government auditors made the following observations on the
basis of field work in six countries:
"Our review shows that the title II program is not adequately
reaching poorer countries or the needier people in the six
countries we visited, particularly rural areas and the high
priority MCH category. Nor is this food assistance being
planned or programed in a way to contribute to the overall de-
velopment process in these countries. Instead, the program
is today being driven more by infrastructure availability or

82
 limitations, and, to an extent, commodity availability, than by
real needs." (40)

Conclusions
There are a great many links in the food aid chain, the failure of any one of
which can seriously upset the performance of a given project. Whereas inter-
national food traders may have similar logistical problems to those facing the
managers of food aid, their job is much simpler because they have only to trans-
port the food to the country in question. Project food aid tries to go two steps
further; firstly, it is destined for individual recipients, and secondly, it is intended
to act as a stimulus to or instrument of development.
In addition, commercial distributors are governed at each stage by the legal-
ities relating to their transactions. Commodities may go astray but someone will
be answerable for them. Food aid, by contrast, is a free gift which makes it far
less accountable.
There have been calls by some major donors for improvements in handling
food aid. The EEC auditors conclude their section on the purchasing, loading,
transport and distribution of food aid with the recommendation that "program-
ming and management of Community food aid need to be completely recast".
(41)fThe US Government auditors made a similar recommendation in saying that
"fundamental changes are needing in the way title II [project food aid] is pro-
gramed and administered at the country level". (42) However, the question
remains whether it is always economically practicable to follow the complex and
exhaustive administrative procedures necessary to ensure the food reaches the
people for whom it is intended, and has the results intended. Where the food is
really needed as in the case of refugee relief the effort must be made, but
where the end results are in question, the expense would seem scarcely justifi-
able.
Inadequate reporting means that food aid continues to be given without
knowledge of what it does or even what it is meant to do. Misappropriation and
illegal sales are widespread; evaluations have often failed to confirm the assump-
tions on which the projects actually rest and have even shown them to be doing
more harm than good. At other times what effects the food may have had are
simply not known. An evaluator who spent nearly five months reviewing CRS
food aid projects in Central America and the Caribbean made the following
comment:
"The food goes out and doubtless, the majority of it is con-
sumed. But the overall impression one obtains from visits in
the region and from talking to CRS field staff, is that the whole
thing is such a gigantic operation that no-one can really know
what is happening at the end of the line." (43)
In similar fashion, the 1979 AID-funded evaluation of project food aid in
India then involving over 19,000,000 recipients noted that it "started with
the means, food, some 25 years ago and has been seeking an end ever since". (44)
Such shortcomings will be hard to avoid. Often programmes are so vast that

83
to monitor and adequately to evaluate them would require a disproportionate
expenditure of money. It is unlikely that either donor or recipient governments
would find the resources to undertake such supervision.
Finally, project food aid has been in existence for over 25 years. So far, no
way has been found to solve the inherent serious and perennial management prob-
lems outlined in this chapter. At the very least, they call into question the use-
fulness of project food aid as a tool for development.

84
 PROJECT FOOD A\D AS
COMPETITION WITH ff
LOC/1L FOOD PRODUCTION^

O ne of the American PL 480 programme's professed principal aims is the

expansion of markets for US agricultural products. Another is encouraging
development in countries determined to improve their own agricultural produc-
tion. It is doubtful whether these two aims can ever be compatible. More atten-
tion has been focussed on the potential disincentive effects of food aid on local
agriculture than on any other aspect of food aid. 0) The availability of large
quantities of free or concessionally priced imported food may depress the price
of local food. This, it is argued, will lead to reduced production. To date, this
concern has related to the bulk donation and concessional sales programmes car-
ried out on a government-to-government basis. It has generally been assumed
that the smaller, more targeted project food aid could have little effect on the
local market and therefore on production.
The present methods of assessing the potential effects of food aid on local
production are imprecise; a comparison is made between the total tonnage of
food aid and the gross food production of a country. (2) This does not give an
accurate reflection of the extent to which local markets are affected. It has been
argued that a better comparison is between the volume of food aid and the pro-
portion of local produce that enters the domestic market.
"The displacement of local produce and the disincentive effect
occurs solely in the markets, and for a majority of these coun-
tries it is true to say that there is a relatively close relationship
between the percentage of non-agricultural population on the
one hand and the proportion of market production as a per-
centage of overall output on the other. Percentages are more
or less evenly matched, so if 10 to 15 per cent of a country's
population are not engaged in agriculture then only about 10
to 15 per cent of overall food output will be channelled via the
market. 3 per cent [of food aid imports] in relation to this
much smaller marketed percentage naturally presents an alto-
gether different picture. In the 10 to 15 per cent instance food
aid would correspond to between 20 and 30 per cent of local
market production. This comparison alone is relevant in assess-
ing possible negative influences." (3)
In making this calculation, it is also essential to consider the total food aid enter-
ing an area, not merely the amount donated by an individual agency.
There are two major distinctions between government-to-government and
project food aid. Firstly, the latter is provided in small quantities relative to
national production and other imports. Secondly, project food aid is not meant

85
to enter the market; its distribution through development projects is intended to
ensure that food is either reaching people who could not otherwise earn the
money to buy it (FFW) or that it is supplementing the normal diets of people
who need more to eat than they can afford (MCH and school feeding). The late
Executive Director of the WFP argued that, "WFP. . . avoids the risk of reduc-
ing farm incomes by concentrating exclusively on food aid projects in which the
commodities are distributed at the very point where they are earned and con-
sumed, usually far from urban centres, and in circumstances where the addition-
al food results only in additional local consumption, without depressing the mar-
kets that guide agricultural producers". (4)
Nevertheless there is some evidence to suggest that project food aid competes
with local production in three ways:
1) It causes lower consumption of local food, thereby taking buyers
out of the local market.
2) It draws people away from agricultural work.
3) It requires the same resources as local agriculture (storage, transport
etc.). It is the direct competition with local production, rather than
the vaguer concept of "disincentive" that should be examined in
relation to project food aid.
Taking Buyers Out of the Market
In supplementary feeding, the substitution of food aid for local food is com-
mon (see Chapters 4 and 5). The 1977 five-country CARE report estimated that
substitution rates in three of the countries ranged from 39%69%. (5) People
therefore spent less money on buying local food. The same report found that:
"In all five countries mothers stated that they were able to
spend less on foods for their families since being enrolled in
the CARE feeding program. . . The high rates of substitution
of the ration for the home diet which were found also serve as
proof of the savings resulting from participation in the pro-
gram!' (6)
A nutritional survey in Northern Ghana examined the relationship between con-
sumption of local foods and 'supplementary' feeding.
". . .there was a reduction in the consumption of various foods
in Toma the week following the clinic in comparison to the
week before the clinic. Among the pre-school children there
was a reduction in the consumption of dried fish, cow's milk,
groundnuts, acha porridge, boiled yams, roasted yam and fufu
after the clinic food was received. Among the lactating women
there was a reduction in the amount of dried fish, acha porridge,
okra, tomatoes, onions, yam slices, roasted yam and fufu con-
sumed. Among the pregnant women there was a reduction in
the amount of dried fish, groundnuts, acha tuon saffi, dawa-
dawa, neri and hibiscus leaves consumed." 0)
At least some of those foods would have been bought in the market.

86
 An evaluation carried out in 1977 by CRS in Guatemala examined the savings
that workers on a FFW scheme had been able to make.
"Everyone who replied [to the questionnaire] stated that they
had saved on food purchases by using Title II foodstuffs. . .
Substantial savings were made in regard to purchases of corn,
beans and lard." (8)
Another way in which project food aid competes with local production is by
entering the market. Sales are reported to be particularly prevalent in two of the
'hungriest' nations in the world - Haiti and Bangladesh. In Haiti in 1978 officials
estimated that between 50 percent and 80 percent of project food aid was sold.
(9) A team of American and Haitian development workers surveyed 3 markets
in the North-west of the country and estimated that one market contained 25
percent US project food aid, another 40 percent and the third a "large percen-
tage". (io)\A UN official described these sales as "rampant".' CO
In 1979, WFP estimated that of its annual commitment of 100,000 tonnes to
Bangladesh "roughly 30,000 metric tons are being sold by workers, plus an un-
known amount of misappropriated wheat". (12) While most aid workers would
agree that individual recipients should be free to use a proportion of their rations
to obtain other necessities, the effect of substantial sales on the local economy is
a serious concern. When it occurs on a large scale it calls into question the real
need for aid in the form of food.

Drawing People Away from Agricultural Work

As a consequence of this market competition, producers may be discouraged
from growing more than their immediate needs. Workers on a FFW project in
Haiti claimed that they relied on the money raised by selling their food aid and
so did not plant as much in their gardens the following year. 03) in addition,
there was a shortage of agricultural labour because so many people were occupied
with the FFW scheme. (14) Farmers in the Highlands of Guatemala made similar
complaints about the relief efforts following the earthquake of 1976. 0 5 )
Over a longer period of time, the availability of food aid can discourage hus-
bandry of existing crops and the planting of new ones. For example, the former
head of WFP's West Africa programme stated that in 1976 a government field
officer from one African country reported to his Department of Agriculture:
"The sorghums and especially millets have yielded poorly be-
cause of the priority given by farmers to groundnuts. Cereals
were generally weeded very late and in many cases not at all.
This problem of priority for groundnuts is the result of past
food aid programmes. They create and foster a dependency in
farmers' minds on food aid being provided year after year."
(16)
A missionary in Ghana reports the unintended effects on local farmers of a con-
signment of food aid which a colleague had arranged to be delivered.
"The following year he discovered that the people he had

87
Large consignments of food aid can compete with food grown locally. When
local food prices fall farmers (and the landless labourers they usually employ)
are both affected.

88
 'helped', expecting the same help the following year, had
sown less grain in time for the rains. This was to be his first
and last attempt." 0?)
Stevens provides data showing that between 1960 and 1970, the amount of
fallow land in Lesotho increased by 26 per cent; the proportion of small-holdings
(less than 2 acres) lying fallow also increased. 0 8 ) A worker with a 1.2 acre hold-
ing would need to participate in a FFW project for only 5 months a year to equal
his possible farm income. 0 9 ) If more than one member of his family is a food
aid recipient and according to 1979 figures, at least half the population are
recipients of US food aid then it would take even less time to acquire the same
amount of food as they could produce themselves. (20) Although it cannot be
concluded that food aid has encouraged the trend towards increasing fallow land
in Lesotho, a 1980 evaluation from WFP lends weight to the contention.
"However, in spite of efforts not to employ an excessive num-
ber of people in any given village at peak periods, a strong risk
of market displacement still exists, since people seem to prefer
to receive food aid rather than produce their own food in their
own fields with the considerable risks inherent in Lesotho
agriculture." (21)
It is worth noting that food aid to Lesotho has increased considerably in
recent years. Between 1975 and 1979, the number of FFW recipients of US food
aid went up by 30 per cent and now represents about 20 per cent of the popula-
tion. (22)

Competition for Resources

Food aid requires the same infrastructure as local produce, particularly for
storage and transport. This brings it into competition for scarce resources. For
example, in Haiti a substantial proportion of the local crop is reported to be lost
each year through inadequate storage. (23) This is one of the reasons why peasant
farmers are forced to sell their produce immediately after the harvest, when
prices are at their lowest. An annual report from one of the major food aid agen-
cies there states:
"The availability of grain storage for farmers in rural Haiti is of
vital importance because of the large annual fluctuations in
grain prices caused by speculation and drought and because of
the incredible damage done by rodents to grain that is improp-
erly stored." (24)
The urgent need for improved decentralised storage was the subject of a meet-
ing of peasant farmers attended by the author in 1978. Despite this, in the same
year, 14 large centralised warehouses for food aid imported by CARE and WFP
were being built or planned at a cost of $1,271,000. (25) Once equipped with
better storage, donors require improved transport facilities, as the 1978 CARE
Haiti Annual Report explained:
"As CARE's food programs expand, there is also a greater need

89
 for additional carrying capacity and additional personnel to
oversee field performance. The additional field personnel, in
turn, require additional vehicles to ensure adequate field cover-
age. As the number of the vehicles increase, so does the need
for professional fleet management and maintenance." (26)
To meet those expanding needs, four additional trucks were bought and thirteen
new staff taken on at a cost of $159,000. (27);WFP's programme called for
$556,000 to be spent over several years on transporting its food within Haiti.
(28);in addition, the Haitian Government was required to provide two 12-ton
lorries. (29) ;Thus, in this case, it seems clear that food aid is in direct competi-
tion with local produce for storage and transport all the way from the field to
the market. As such problems affect farmers in many parts of the world
particularly in Africa the accumulated results of such competition should not
be ignored. Moreover, peasant farmers are most affected by this, since large
companies usually produce export crops. Peasant farmers also take on seasonal
labour so that if production was- reduced in response to an influx of food aid, it
is this poorer section of the population which would be most affected.

Conclusions
Since project food aid aims to reach individual recipients, it is at the local
level that disruptions in the domestic economy will be felt first. For local farm-
ers, therefore, the principal side effects of such projects are likely to be market
competition with sales of food aid and a reduction in consumer demand as a
result of the substitution of imports for local foods. Farmers may also be at a
disadvantage because of the resources required by imported food aid: it may be
simpler for governments to accept food aid than to assist local producers.
While it is difficult to prove conclusively that food aid is necessarily a dis-
incentive to local production, it is clear that there are several ways in which it
does affect it. Indeed, as it becomes institutionalised, so it requires an infrastruc-
ture of its own and thus competes with local farmers for facilities essential to
both.
Finally, with the possible exception of resettlement programmes, it is hard to
see where food aid has provided a positive incentive to local small farmer pro-
duction.
In conclusion, then, there is evidence to dispute the generally accepted be-
lief that the risk of disincentive to domestic food production is avoided when
food aid is targeted at particular groups or specific projects. This belief is in fact
no more than an assumption.

90
 CONCLUSIONS #####

T he problems associated with project food aid outlined in this book are not
new. They have been identified by many different groups over a large
number of years. Not only have field workers and on-the-spot evaluates found
much to question, but staff of aid agencies and the governments that give them
the food have made many of the most telling criticisms.
Despite these frequent expressions of concern, food aid administrators still
defend the principle of project food aid. In the main they have not yet accepted
our finding that food is, by its nature, an inappropriate form of development
assistance. Attention is paid to questions of how to improve its delivery, while
we argue that, except for a limited range of relief needs, large-scale food aid
should be substantially reduced.
As evidence is presented against the efficacy of food aid in one form of
development assistance after another, new rationales for its continued use are
produced. Some commentators have claimed benefits other than the now ques-
tionable ones of nutrition or development. Stevens, for example, concludes his
study by arguing the "the real impact of food aid can be quite different from its
apparent effects", and by stating that project food aid "is best thought of as
income-in-kind". 0) This argument minimises the importance of competition with
local production inherent in providing food aid in non-disaster times. Food aid's
tendency to create dependence on imported commodities, to devalue local pro-
ducts in the eyes of the recipients and thus to work against development also
diminishes the strength of this argument. The fact that projects are often not tar-
geted satisfactorily in economic terms - as with millions of schoolchildren, for
example further weakens the case. Finally, the cost in staff and cash terms
needs to be considered. Time, manpower and money would be much better
spent on helping the really needy and in devising sound development efforts.
The income-in-kind argument is an apology for food aid, rather than a point in its
favour.
It has been argued that the case against food aid is no different from the case
against development assistance generally. It is not our concern here to argue for
or against aid as such. It is our view, however, that there are inherent problems
associated with food aid which are peculiar to it and make it a particularly cum-
bersome and inappropriate means of providing assistance. On the surface project
food aid seem to provide a morally and politically acceptable way of sharing the
fruits of over-production in the North with those in need in the South. Because
of its appeal at this simple level, and because of governments' interests in sup-
porting their own rural economies, food aid's inherent weaknesses have been
largely overlooked. But donors must recognise its ineffectiveness and the damage
it can cause.

91
 Why has this not been acknowledged already? Food aid is the prime example
of an available commodity determining aid policy. As we noted earlier, the food
aid tail wags the development dog. It is a commodity-oriented programme which
starts with the food and then has to devise projects through which to distribute
it. Given the difficulties of administering large-scale commodity aid, it is not sur-
prising, on a practical level, that so few food-aided projects can demonstrate long-
term success. Distribution not development becomes the overriding factor. The
donor countries have food to dispose of. They seek acceptable ways of doing so.
Development assistance seems an eminently acceptable solution. Frequently the
details of the projects' development aims are seen as of secondary importance.
The dilemma is well summed up in the AID-funded evaluation of the huge food
aid programme in India:
"The CARE program in India is almost exclusively concerned
with food distribution and its other projects are primarily in
support of its food program. Its cash expenditures are well
integrated into food programs, as they go primarily for con-
struction of balwadis [creches] and payment for support
services for maternal-child feeding, food processing facil-
ities, and godowns [warehouses] for storage of Title II food.
A heavy focus of the CARE program is on moving the food,
which entails considerable logistical effort, and which they
do quite well. Unfortunately, this may distract attention
from the broader development questions and limit activities
in non-food programs." (2)
While a major donor such as the US has its food aid policies dictated by
the requirements of a minimum mandated tonnage, it will be difficult to resolve
this dilemma.
The major food aid agencies are vocal in their advocacy of the role of this form
of aid. Given their substantial involvement in the business of distributing foods
their arguments may not always be entirely disinterested.
Proponents of food aid often justify it as a short-term expedient. This has
been its justification for over 25 years, long enough to turn rhetoric into reality,
yet the tendency has been to institutionalise food aid-dependent projects. It is
now time to begin closing them down. Since the really malnourished are not
being reached by existing programmes in any significant way, closure will have
no negative effects on them. Indeed it may have a positive benefit by enabling
people to concentrate on more effective means of development.
Priorities for the use of food aid should then be revised. It should be used
where it is genuinely irreplaceable, for refugees, for emergencies where food it-
self is in short supply and for the institutional feeding of the old, the sick and
other welfare cases. In such circumstances, every effort must be made to ensure
that food arrives on time and reaches the people who need it. To this end, pro-
curement, delivery and distribution procedures need to be radically improved.
When, and only when, such needs have been satisfied should food aid be used
for development, and then according to strict criteria. As with all forms of de-

92
velopment assistance, project design should start with felt development needs
that those it is intended to help can identify with. If food aid can then be used
to facilitate such projects, it will be making a useful contribution. Food aid may
be used to genuine nutritional advantage in a child health project which has
identified a specific food need for the demonstrably malnourished that cannot
be met locally. A resettlement project where preparation of a new site can only
be done if outside food is available, a small-scale irrigation project where marginal
farmers need support while they work together to build ditches these are
possible candidates for the effective use of food aid. Each project must have tan-
gible and achievable objectives and not just broad conceptual 'development' ends.
This will mean reducing drastically the number of people reached, but it is like-
ly to mean that those reached are the people most genuinely in need, and that
the help given will have a lasting effect. It can only be done if the prime aim is
development assistance and not counting heads and bags of food.
Finite limits should be placed on the amount of food to be distributed and on
the timing of the project to avoid institutionalisation of the food aid component.
The discontinuation of food aid should be written into the project design. Fin-
ally, independent evaluations, with the power to affect future policy, are the
only way of ensuring that food aid programmes are achieving the targets that
have been set.
The inevitable outcome of this prescription would be that much less food aid
would be needed. Welfare projects will only ever make relatively small demands,
and more tightly controlled development projects will need less food inputs than
the large-scale projects so prevalent at present. Pressures to increase the scale of
food distribution beyond this should be resisted, regardless of the domestic po-
litical pressures on donor countries.
It has been assumed up to now that food aid is needed because there is a
shortage of food in the Third World. The Third World is thus seen as a vast
refugee camp with hungry people lining up for food from the global food aid
soup kitchen. This view is false. Some disasters aside (and these are important
areas for food aid), the basic problem is not one of food, but poverty. Free hand-
outs of food do not address this problem, they aggravate it.
It may be going against the grain to call for a substantial reduction in non-
emergency project food aid. However, analysis of the experience of the last 25
years suggests that it is time we did.

93
REFERENCES
REFERENCES CHAPTER 1

1. In 1980 $2,619,000,000 worth of food aid (net) was disbursed, according

to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
in 1981 Review: Development Co-operation, OECD, Paris, 1981, table
A.10. See Appendix for details.
2. WFP/CFA (Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes): 9/5,
"General Review of Food Aid Policies and Programmes", March 1980,
P. 11-
3. Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, US Government
Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, Table 17. The actual figure given
for all recipients of Title II (project) food aid is 66,360,899. Of these
however just over 5,500,000 were included under a special sales pro-
gramme of food aid and as such are not the subject of this report.
4. International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1977, US Con-
gress, 1977.
5. "Statement by Mr Edouard Saouma, Director-General of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, before the Committee
on Development and Cooperation of the European Parliament, Brussels,
1 April 1980", p. 6.
6. North-South: A programme for survival, Independent Commission on
International Development Issues, Pan Books, London, 1980, p. 104.
7. Comptroller General of the United States, Changes Needed in the Admin-
istration of the Overseas Food Donation Program, Report to the Congress,
US General Accounting Office, Washington DC, 15 October 1979, p. 33.
8. Group for International Nutrition, Institute for Nutrition Research,
University of Oslo, Nordic Food Aid, Nordic Council of Ministers Secre-
tariat, Stockholm, 1980, p. 27.
9. Mrs K. Focke, "Working Document on an effective food aid policy that
takes into account the needs of hunger-stricken countries and peoples
emergency aid", European Parliament Working Documents 1980-1981,
Annex, 5 Sept. 1981, p. 56.
10. European Communities, Court of Auditors, Special Report on Com-
munity Food Aid, 30 October 1980, p. 118.
11. "EEC 21st Report: Development Aid Policy", Hansard, Vol. 420, No.
89, Col. 1302,3 June 1981.
12. Jonathan Fryer, Food for Thought, The Use and Abuse of Food Aid in
the Fight Against World Hunger, World Council of Churches, Geneva,
1981.
13. "Recommendations by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation
on Food Issues to the Parliamentary Task Force on North South Relations",
Ottawa, 1 October 1980, p. 2.

94
 (References Ch 2)

REFERENCES CHAPTER 2

1. WFP/CFA: 9/5, "General Review of Food Aid Policies & Programmes",

March 1980, p. 11.
2. For a full account of the Ethiopian case, see Jack Shepherd, The Politics
of Starvation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington
DC, 1975, p. 16. The writer concludes that,
"Ethiopia, in 1973, became an example of problems facing the inter-
national agencies on a global basis. These agencies and the donor nation
administrators shared their unwillingness to sacrifice political considera-
tions, in retrospect very short range, for humanitarian concerns of more
enduring importance. In fact, the famine in Ethiopia shows us that those
men and women whose job it is to handle drought and food emergencies
or publicize outbreaks of disease are unwilling or unable to do so. . . .
In Ethiopia, thousands of helpless peasants were sacrificed for this atti-
tude." (pp. 81-82).
3. Richard W. Franke and Barbara H. Chasin, Seeds of Famine, Allanheld,
Osmun and Co., Montclair, 1980, p. 11.
4. Hal Sheets and Roger Morris, Disaster in the Desert: Failures of Inter-
national Relief in the West African Drought, Special Report, Humanitarian
Policy Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington
DC, 1974, p. 2.
5. Christopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London, 1979, p. 21. Stevens adds that
further details of the part of the British Government in this affair can be
found in the Fifth Report from the Committee of Public Accounts,
Session 1976-77, HMSO, London, 23 June 1977, paras. 839-925.
6. Robin J. Biellik and Peggy L. Henderson, "Mortality, Nutritional Status
and Dietary Conditions in a Food Deficit Region: North Teso District,
Uganda, December, 1980", Ecology of Food and Nutrition, December
1981, p. 168.
7. Personal letter of 27 September 1978.
8. Jo Froman et al., "General Review: PL480 Food Assistance in Guatemala",
Antigua, Guatemala (mimeo) June 1977 (a). The authors worked as con-
tractors for AID during 1976 and 1977 and the review is based on the
AID/Guatemala files. The information regarding the release of supplies
elsewhere in Latin America is taken from House of Representatives,
Managing International Disasters: Guatemala. Hearings and Markup before
the . . . Committee on International Relations, HR 12046, US Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington DC, 1976, p. 33.
9. Robert Gersony et al., A Contrastive Analysis of Alternative Recon-
struction Models after the February 1976 Guatemalan Earthquake, USA1D, Guatemala,
December 1977, p. 132.
10. Toni Hagen, "Appraisal of the Situation in Guatemala", Caritas Inter-
nationalis, August 1976, p. 15.
See also Alan J. Taylor, An Evaluation of the Problems Limiting the
Promotion of Rural Development and the Effective Relief of Suffering by
Catholic Relief Services USCC in Mexico, Central America, Panama and
the Caribbean with a Discussion of Policy Options, CRS, New York, 24
September 1976, p. 252. Taylor reports that Caritas/Guatemala also tried

95
(Reference Ch 2)

to limit the amount of food entering the country.

11. Froman et al., 1977 (a), op. cit., p. 24.
12. House of Representatives, 1976, op. cit., p. 34.
13. Decree 40-74; quoted in Froman et al., 1977 (a), op. cit., p. 25.
14. Sally Baker-Carr and Lyn Dobrin, "Double Disaster: Earthquake and
Food Aid in Guatemala", Food Monitor, November/December 1978, p. 5.
15. "On the Receiving End", ibid., p. 6.
16. Roland Bunch, "Report on Aldeas with Recommendations for OXFAM-
World Neighbors Kuchubal Project", Guatemala, (typescript) 21 March
1976, p. 3.
In an interview with Bunch and William Ruddell, who also worked on
earthquake related programmes in Guatemala, both men noted that the
need for food aid ended after about two weeks. That, said Ruddell, "was
when the farmers in the coop started telling us they didn't need any food.
They said they had plenty of food in their houses". Bunch added, "Right.
Most of the leaders I had been working with said, 'We don't need any food
programs any more - you can cut the food aid'. But by this time, the
PL480 food was pouring in from CARE and CRS . . . and was being handed
out by their own staff and by the military, school teachers, Peace Corps-
men, and so on". ("The Relationship between PL480 Food Distribution
and Agricultural Development in Guatemala," Antigua, Guatemala,
(mimeo) 21 August 1977, p. 8.).
Fred Cuny, another field worker, had a similar experience. He worked in
most of the devastated area, and reported, "In talking with people through-
out the country, food was always a major issue. When we went to talk to
the people about housing, they would always ask, 'Are you going to
bring in food?' And we'd say no. 'That's good,' they'd say, 'because we've
got to try to sell what we have.' Everyplace, it always came up, though we
were working in housing and didn't get into the details very much. But I
know that the people, especially the farmers, didn't want the food coming
in". (Jo Froman et al., "Edited Interview: Food Donations after Disasters
and in relation to Agricultural Development, with Frederick C. Cuny,
Executive Director, INTERTECT, Dallas", Antigua, Guatemala, (mimeo)
28 February 1977(b), p. 12.)
After the price of grain fell so drastically, one co-operative in the area
decided to run a price-support scheme. With a grant from OXFAM of
$100,000, it was able to buy grain at slightly above the current market
value and within a short time, peasant farmers had sold 750 tons. Only
when all the money had been spent did the project finish; the problem
was not lack of local supply but lack of more cash with which to con-
tinue the purchasing. This is described more fully in Bunch and Ruddell,
1977, op. cit., pp. 14-16. Bunch concludes, "In other words, we were
doing exactly the opposite of what PL480 was doing. We were creating
demand, and they were reducing it", (p. 15) Further discussion is contained
in Frederick L. Bates et al., "Emergency Food Programs Following the
Guatemalan Earthquake of 1976", February 1979 (mimeo). Funded by
the National Science Foundation.
17. Alan Riding, "U.S. Food Aid Seen Hurting Guatemala", The New York
Times, 6 November 1977.
18. "On the Receiving End", 1978, op. cit.
19. Bunch and Ruddell, 1977, op. cit., pp. 11-12.
96
 (References Ch 2)

20. In interview with Tony Jackson, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 1978.

21. Stated by Mr John Shaw, WFP Senior Economist, on the BBC World
Service programme "Talkabout". 4 June 1980.
The 1977 drought in Haiti provides an illustration of the difficulties
posed by food aid even for emergencies. In addition to Title II aid, the
US Government provided extra Title I (concessional sales) food to the
Haitian Government. The agreement was signed on 13 April 1977 but, as
an official telegram from the US Embassy in Haiti later explained:
"Corn did not arrive until September when worst of emergency was pass-
ing. Fortunately, the rains returned, better than normal, and this corn,
which would have been treasure [sic] in a continued emergency, became
a glut on the market and a burden to the GOH [Government of Haiti]."
Over 5,000 tons of corn were sold to a poultry dealer in Port-au-Prince,
at two cents per pound (against its actual cost of over seven cents per
pound). The telegram adds that the Haitian Government believed a market
could be found for the estimated 4,250 tons remaining, as poultry feed in
the Dominican Republic. (US Embassy, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, No. 2475,
Sections 2(A) and 2(B), 22 June 1978.)
22. IPRA Food Group, Circular Letter IV, "Special Issue: Food Aid", (1/78),
Zurich, 1978, p. 35.
23. Reported by OXFAM Field Director.
24. Catholic Relief Services/USCC, Zaire Program, "Situation Report on the
Emergency Relief Program, Bas Zaire, October 18-December 3 1979",
Boma, 7 December 1979. It begins:
"Since the emergency program became operational with the first arrival of
Title II food commodities the latter part of July 1979, we are now able to
report that considerable progress has been made in addressing the mal-
nutrition problems in the project zone of Tshela and Lukule caused by
the drought/famine of 1977-1978."
This report is an interesting example of how an optimistic tone tends to
divert attention from the facts which are recorded. It was given to the
author by a State Department official in Washington who said it illustrated
a good food aid programme. In fact, of course, the food aid arrived much
too late: it was delivered in July 1979 to relieve the drought/famine of
1977-78.
25. Personal communication from an EEC official, 18 Dec 1981. The author
worked on the island from Nov 1979 to Feb 1980, by which month food
aid was no longer necessary. For an interesting discussion about food aid
in Dominica see J. M. Wit and P. Gooder, "Nutritional status of hospital-
ised preschool children in Dominica, before and after Hurricane David",
Disasters, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 93-97, 1981.
26. Food was provided for 80% of the population for three months and for
60% over five months. The information for this section comes from Maria
Colemont, a nutritionist and OXFAM project holder working in the
Dominican Republic, who was interviewed by the author in November
1981.
27. Julius Holt, "The Helping Hand", New Internationalist, No. 53, July
1977,p. 14.
28. Ibid., p. 16.
29. European Communities, Court of Auditors, Special Report on Com-

97
(References Ch 2)

munity Food Aid, 30 October 1980, p. 9, notes:

"Recently the Community authorised food aid operations of the so-called
'triangular' type. In these operations the goods are supposed to be bought
in a developing country close to the one which is to receive the aid.
Operations of this kind could play a part in encouraging the agricultural
development of the country selling the goods. For its part the recipient
country may receive aid better suited to the customary diet of its people.
There are also savings in time and in transport costs."
The slowness of EEC emergency food aid operations has frequently been
remarked upon and is the subject of concern to the Auditors and others.
(See Andries Klasse Bos, "Food Aid by the European Communities:
Policy and Practice", Overseas Development Institute Review, No. 1,
1978, and "Characteristics, Summary and Conclusion", in ISMOG, Study
of European Food Aid, Vol. 1, ODI, London, 1976, pp. 18-19.)
30. Froman et al., op. cit., 1977 (b), p. 10.
31. One booklet does contain a useful set of guidelines for measuring tonnage
needs. By using the method devised by the Center for Disease Control
(CDC) of the US Public Health Department, it can be calculated that food
aid requirements for a short period of time for 1,000 people "at risk"
would be 1.05 tonnes of grain a week (the needs might change over a
longer period of time). The booklet gives an example of how this method
of calculating needs can lead to tonnages different from those requested.
"In 1975 the Government of Haiti requested food aid for a famine in the
northern region. Very little information was given regarding the situation,
except that over 22,000 tons of food-stuffs were required for a population
of 300,000 people for a three month period. If the administrator is to
assess the validity of such a request on the basis of such limited informa-
tion, the CDC formula will prove practicable. Given that the weekly
amount required for 1,000 persons 'at risk' would be 1.05 metric tons,
the requirement for 300,000 people 'at risk' for a period of three months
would therefore be:
300 X 1.05 X 13 = 4,095 metric tons of cereal.
The major discrepancy between the 'rule of thumb' assessment, and the
actual requirement for food aid would suggest that the need for food aid
may have been over emphasised. In such circumstances it would seem that
there would be a good case for asking for additional information as to why
the food aid requirement was so high."(" 'Rule of Thumb' Methods for
Calculating Emergency Food Aid Requests", prepared by London Tech-
nical Group (Mark Bowden) for The Disaster Unit of the Ministry of Over-
seas Development, London, July 1976, p. 3.)
32. Cato Aall, "Disastrous International Relief Failure: A Report on Burmese
Refugees in Bangladesh from May to December 1978", Disasters, Vol. 3,
No. 4, 1979,pp.429 and 434.
33. Ibid., p. 429.
34. Ibid., pp. 433 and 434.
Given the seriousness of the case described by Dr Aall, and that it hap-
pened recently in spite of so many years of disaster relief experience,
it seems useful to quote here from the final section of his report.
"What can be done to prevent relief disasters like the one which happened
to the Burmese refugees from May to December 1978? . . .

98
 (References Ch 2)

Whether it be from inside the UN family, or from one or more Govern-

ments, or from another third party, an initiative should be taken for an
improvement in the handling of nutrition disasters and emergency relief
operations (which so easily may develop into nutrition disasters). Below
are mentioned some points for a possible programme.
(1) Establishment of an international advisory body with a pool of experts
who could be drawn upon to assist in establishing and implementing
some of the following points.
(2) Assistance to UN agencies, international and voluntary agencies or
governments in drawing up actual relief plans; accompanying and
assisting in initial assessment field visits, and later inspection visits . . .
(3) Assistance in running half-day or one-day orientation courses for
heads of UN agencies and their top level officials to create insight
and awareness on the major nutritional and logistic problems involved.
(4) Calling a conference (conferences) to discuss and establish certain
disaster relief norms and recommendations regarding: dry rations
(full rations, supporting supplementary rations); supplementary
vulnerable-group feeding; treatment feeding for severely malnourished
children.
(5) To establish or support one or more international school centres for
research and training in nutrition disaster relief (operational integra-
tion of administration, logistics and nutrition). . .
Such a programme or institution could become an independent third
party for supporting and strengthening relief organisations, and also have a
watch-dog function, mainly to help, but also to bark and bite if needed."
(P. 434)
Another important point is made in the "Afterword" by Stephen Green,
UNICEF officer in Ethiopia, in Shepherd, op. cit. He notes that inter-
national disasters are like wars: international problems the resolution of
which requires international involvement. Both points merit serious atten-
tion and should not be left lingering in afterwords or specialised journals.
35. Reports and memoranda on Karamoja relief operation, OXFAM, Oxford.
36. Quoted in Tony Swift, "The Curse of Amin Lives On", Sunday Tribune,
South Africa, 28 December 1980.
37. Personal communication from Christopher Jackson, OXFAM Assistant
Disasters Officer, 5 March 1981.
38. Trent O'Keefe, OXFAM/WFP Rehabilitation Officer in Karamoja, in inter-
view with Tony Jackson, OXFAM, Oxford, 12 April 1981, (typescript),
pp. 4-5.
39. Report by F. D. O'Hanlon, OXFAM/WFP Warehouse Manager, Uganda,
OXFAM, Oxford, 1 May 1981, (typescript).
40. This is a well-documented risk associated with distribution of relief sup-
plies. A useful set of articles on refugee settlements can be found in
Disasters, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1979.
41. Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1981,
p. 137.
42. Keith Griffin, 'The poverty trap", The Guardian, 7 October 1981, p. 10,
in a review of Sen's book.
43. Joseph F. Stepanek, Bangladesh - Equitable Growth? Pergamon Press,
Oxford, 1979, pp. 65-66.

99
(References Ch 2)

44. Roland Bunch et al., "Problems with Food Distribution Programs: A case
in Point", World Neighbors, Oklahoma City, 1978, (leaflet) p. 2.
45. Larry Simon, "Andhra Pradesh: Interview with Srikanth on the Aftermath
of Cyclone", The 7 Days Planner, OXFAM-America, 1978, Issue 3, p. 1.
46. OXFAM Project UGA 54, OXFAM, Oxford.
47. The approach is fully discussed in Froman et al., 1977 (a) and 1977 (b),
op. cit.
48. See, for example, Alan J. Taylor, The USA ID/Guatemala Lamina and
Housing Materials Distribution Program: Ex-post Evaluation Report,
June 1977, a companion volume to Gersony et al., 1977, op. cit. AID also
carried out a successful subsidised programme in Dominica after the 1979
hurricane.
49. Alex Rondos, "Problems that food aid creates", West Africa, 16 June
1980,p.1055.
50. Maria Colemont, see ref. 26 above, 1981.
51. Caritas Diocesaine, Eveche de Port-de-Paix, Haiti, "Quarterly Report,
July 1-September 30 1977," p. 1. (Translated by Tony Jackson).
52. "Quarterly Report, January 1-March 31 1978," p. 1. (Translated by
by Tony Jackson).
53. "Quarterly Report, January 1-March 31 1978," p. 1. (Translated by
Tony Jackson).
54. WFP/CFA: 11/4, "Annual Report of the Executive Director on the
Development of the Programme: 1980," April 1981, p. 25.
55. Before 1976, the average PL 480 Title II tonnage to Guatemala was about
7,000 p.a. This went up to 11,600 tons in 1976-77 and increased to
over 14,500 tons in 1978-79. Figures are obtained from Food for Peace
Annual Reports on Public Law 480.
56. In interview with Tony Jackson, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 26 October 1978.
57. Personal letter from field worker, 11 April 1980.
1979 figures drawn from Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public
Law 480, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, Table 17.
58. IPRA Food Group, 1978, op. cit., p. 18.
59. Hjalmar Brundin, "Preliminary Report: FFW Secondary Effect Methodo-
logy Study", USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 4 May 1979, p. 3.
60. Ibid.
61. David McDowall, "A case for reassessment", Middle East International, 19
June 1981,p. 11.
62. About 11% by weight of Title II (project) food aid goes directly to govern-
ments. Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, op. cit.,
Table 18.
63. European Communities, Court of Auditors, 1980, op. cit., p. 124.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. See, for example, the "Statement by Mr Edouard Saouma, Director-
General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
before the Committee on Development and Cooperation of the European
Parliament," Brussels, 1 April 1980, as well as numerous publications by
the FAO relating to food insecurity.

100
67. Figure derived from appeals reported in the British press, January-April
1981.
68. Statement by the Director-General of FAO, 1980, op. cit., p. 8.
69. WFP/CFA: 11/7, "Future of the International Emergency Food Reserve:
Development of the Reserve into a Legally Binding Convention and
Related Proposals", March 1981, pp. 6-7.
70. Ibid., p. 7.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid., p. 6.
73. In 1980-81, OXFAM, for example, spent over 400,000 shipping rice to
Vietnam, part of the funding coming from NOVIB of the Netherlands.
74. WFP/CFA: 11/7, 1981, op. cit., p. 6. The recommendation is proposed by
the Director-General of FAO.
75. Otto Matzke, "Insufficient Control of Efficiency and Development Impact
in the U.N. System: The Example of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (F.A.O.)" (mimeo) p. 26. This is a translation of
an article which appeared in Das Parlament, Bonn, 16 May 1981 ,(B 20/81).
From 1962 to early 1974 Dr Matzke was Deputy Director, then Director,
of WFP's Project Management Division.
76. The position of the US and EEC with regard to the IEFR is summarised
in a WFP document (WFP/CFA: 11/SR.2, May 1981). The US "did not
believe that it was necessarily desirable for IEFR pledges to be channelled
exclusively through the WFP . . . since bilateral and multilateral food
aid programmes both contributed to world food aid they should comple-
ment rather than compete with each other", (para 9) The EEC found the
idea of a legally binding convention "at the present time, not so much
wrong as irrelevant", adding that its regular contribution to the IEFR
was being increased by 50% compared to 1980. (paras 23-24) The tonnage
however only went up to 30,000 tons in 1981, a small amount indeed.
77. WFP/CFA: 11/4, 1981, op. cit., p. 23.

REFERENCES CHAPTER 3
1. Figures from Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480,
US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, Table 17 and
World Development Report 1981, World Bank, Washington DC, 1981.
2. World Food Programme in Egypt: Bread and Stones The Salvage of the
Philae Monuments, FAO, Rome, 1979.
3. World Food Programme: What it is. What is does, How it works, FAO,
Rome, 1981, p. 5.
4. Employment Through Food Aid, WFP, Rome, 1978, p. 12.
5. Ibid., p. 23.
6. Overseas Development, Overseas Development Ministry, London, Septem-
ber 1978, p. 4.
7. WFP, 1978, op. cit., p. 23.
8. Simon Maxwell, Food Aid, Food for Work and Public Works, Discussion
Paper 127, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton,
March 1978, p. 33.
9. Ibid., p. 34.

101
(References Ch 3)

10 FAO/AGS, "Les projets PAM-42 et TUN/71-525 et les perspectives de

developpement agricole du centre-sud tunisien", October 1971, quoted in
a report of the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Planning
and Development Office, 25 June 1973, p. 4. The translation is from
Jacques Berthelot, "Food Aid through the World Food Programme in
Tunisia: How to Carry out a Counter-Agrarian Reform," Rome Declara-
tion Group, July 1979, p. 1.
11. Berthelot, op. cit., p. 1.
12. Republique Tunisienne, Projet de developpement rural integri, Tunisie
Centrale: rapport general, Projet PNUD/FAO/TUN/72.004, Ministere de
l'agriculture, Centre National des Etudes Agricoles, Ministere du Plan,
Groupe huit, July 1974, p. 30. From Berthelot, op. cit., p. 2.
13. Christopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London 1979 (a), p. 129.
14. Maxwell, 1978, op. cit., p. 40.
15. Michael Scott, Aid to Bangladesh: For Better or Worse? Impact Series
No. 1., OXFAM-America/Institute for Food and Development Policy,
Boston, 1979, pp. 7-8.
16. See, for example, Edward J. Clay, "Food Aid and Food Policy in Bangla-
desh", Food Policy, May 1979, pp. 132-133:
"A serious reservation about the overall impact of FFW concerns the
longer term developmental benefits of rural works. A. H. Khan, architect
of the Comilla rural development project, and many others, have ques-
tioned the productive impacts of rural works. There is also the problem of
the acquisition by the rural elite of a disproportionate share of the bene-
fits from infrastructural investment, particularly where earth works
directly increase productive potential of the land."
Stefan de Vylder and Daniel Asplund, Contradictions and Distortions in a
Rural Economy: The Case of Bangladesh, Swedish International Develop-
ment Authority, 1979,pp.198-199:
"The undoubtedly largest beneficiaries are the big landowners and associated
interests among the rural elite. Among direct economic gains made by
these groups we thus find land improvement and useful structures which
more or less became the property of the landowners. . . . These direct
improvements and increase in future productive capacity are also reflected
in rapidly rising land values."
F. Tomasson Jannuzi and James T. Peach, Report on the Hierarchy of
Interests in Land in Bangladesh, AID, Washington DC, Sept. 1977, p. 88,
brings out this and other points:
"Such projects (e.g., the building of a farm to market road) provide in-
come to rural workers for a specified period, but do nothing generally
to change the fundamental economic conditions that produced unemploy-
ment in the first place. At the same time, such projects tend to provide
long-term benefits to landholders who, in this example, use the road to
gain access to local markets."
17. Hjalmar Brundin, "Preliminary Report: FFW Secondary Effect Methodo-
logy Study", USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 4 May 1979, p. 41.
18. Ibid., P. 46.
19. Ibid., P. 25.
20. Ibid., P. 26.

102
 (References Ch 3)

21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., p. 28.
23. Ibid., p. 19. The project is described on pp. 10-19.
24. Ibid., pp. 37-38.
25. Jalaliddin Akbar, "Phulpur Thana, Rahimganj Union, Food for Work Pro-
ject: A Case Study", USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 1979, Appendix D, pp. 3-4.
26. Stevens, 1979 (a), op. cit., p. 116.
27. Ibid., p. 114.
28. Ibid., p. 116.
29. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. Bl, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Lesotho352:
"Soil and water conservation and road improvement", February 1980, p. 4.
30. Stanley J. Wolfe, M.D., "Evaluation of a Rural Tunisia Wells Project:
Worthwhile Improvement or Edifice Complex?" M.Sc. dissertation, The
Ross Institute, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Univer-
sity of London, 1980, summary and p. 4.
31. Ibid., p. 16.
32. Ibid., p. 19.
33. Robert Maguire, Bottom-up Development in Haiti, IAF Paper No. 1,
The Inter-American Foundation, Rosslyn, October 1979, p. 29.
The problems posed by insecure land tenure and, therefore, the futility
of trying to carry out land improvement programmes, have often been
observed in Haiti. Adrian Moyes, The Poor Man's Wisdom: Technology
and the Very Poor, Public Affairs Unit, OXFAM, Oxford, 1979, describes
a contour-bunding idea that worked well in Guatemala but failed to make
any impact in Haiti.
"Too many people rented land in the programme area there, and they
knew from first-hand experience that the landlords simply re-possessed
any improved land one of the programme workers has twice had land
re-possessed because he improved it." (p. 22).
Mats Lundahl, Peasants and Poverty: a Study of Haiti, Croom Helm,
London, 1979, contains a valuable discussion of land tenure in Haiti.
One section is of particular interest:
"The absence of written deeds and of tenants' rights creates a potentially
precarious situation for most peasants in the longer run, and this situation
very often becomes acute when some innovation takes place that increases
the value of the land. Alfred Metraux relates a case from the Marbial
Valley:
A peasant friend of ours had leased three-quarters of a 'carreau' from a
townsman, at a rent of 40 gdes. Encouraged by the fact that for ten
years he had been on excellent terms with the lessor, he started a small
coffee plantation on the plot. The flourishing condition of this plot
prompted a neighbour to ask the landlord to transfer the lease to him,
in return fora rent of 60 gourdes. This suggestion was immediately accepted,
and our friend was informed of the cancellation of his lease, in a note
which offered no compensation whatever for the young coffee plantation
he had started." (p. 603)
The author adds that "anything that increases the value of peasant land is
potentially threatening", (p. 604)
34. "Special Evaluation of the USAID/CARE Food for Relief Work Program",

103
(References Ch 3)

USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 8 April 1978, p. 22.

35. Hjalmar Brundin, "Food for Work in Bangladesh: Recommendations for
Improved program Effectiveness". USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 31 July 1979,
P. 2.
A comparable finding has been made for the massive FFW programme
started in 1977 by the Government of India, using its own food stocks.
See "Food for Work: Money Down the Grain", India Today, 16-31 May
1981,p.122-123.
36. Ibid., pp. 5-6.
Brundin adds that there is a possible variation of plus or minus 2.6 million
in the 10.5 million figure, while for the 22.7 million figure, "according to
CARE officials the measurements taken may be up to 20% off", (p. 6)
37. A fact noted, among others, by John R. Tarrant, Food Policies, John
Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1980, p. 265:
"Finally, there are climatic limitations to the food for work programmes.
The physical conditions mean that rural works can only be carried out
successfully in the dry season. In Bangladesh and India, for example,
this is the food 'fat' season following the main rice harvests. In the wet
season the nutritional needs of the population will be higher, opportunities
for alternative employment are lower, and the food for work programmes
are not operating. The rural poor are picked up and dropped by such pro-
grammes at exactly the wrong times."
38. Christopher Stevens, "Food Aid and the Old: Doing Good by Accident",
New Internationalist, April 1979 (b), pp. 21-23.
39. World Food Programme News, October-December 1979, p. 12.
For further information on women's participation in FFW, see "Women in
Food-for-Work: The Bangladesh Experience", an abridged version of a
report by Marty Chen and Ruby Ghuznavi, WFP/CFA: 4/INF/5, Septem-
ber 1977.
40. War on Hunger, AID, Washington DC, December 1977, quoted in Food
Aid Watch, Boston, (mimeo) October 1978, p. 4.
41. Glenn R. Smucker (ed.), "Food Aid and the Problem of Labor Intensive
Rural Development", USAID/Port-au-Prince, (mimeo) 21 October 1979,
P. 17.
42. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, "Development or Dependency?" Food Monitor,
May-June 1979, p. 11.
43. Calculated from the figures in CRS, Annual Summaries of Activities,
Dominican Republic, from 1 July 1972 to 30 June 1978.
44. Tony Jackson, "Preliminary Report, PL480 Title II Food Aid to the
Dominican Republic", OXFAM, (mimeo) April 1979, p. 5.
45. "On the Receiving End", Food Monitor, No. 7, November-December
1978,p.7.
46. Eugene Linden, The Alms Race: The Impact of American Voluntary Aid
Abroad, Random House, New York, 1976, p. 146.
47. Ibid., pp. 146-147.
48. Ibid.
49. David Cockley and Steve Mason, "Report of Agricultural Trip to the
North West, 10-16 March 1978", (mimeo) pp. 2-3.
50. Ibid., p. 6.

104
51. Quoted in George Ann Potter, "PL-480 Foreign Assistance Food-Aid:
Dependency or Development?" Testimony presented to the House of
Representatives, Sub-committee on Foreign Operations, 4 April 1979, p. 7.
52. Claudette Antoine Werleigh, "L'aide alimentaire a Haiti", Conjonction,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 1978, p. 34, translated by Tony Jackson.
53. OXFAM Project VOL. 93, October 1980.
54. Ibid.
55. Smucker (ed.), 1979, op. cit., p. 14.
56. Werleigh, 1978, op. cit., p. 34.
57. Stevens, 1979 (a), op. cit., p. 117.
58. Smucker (ed.), 1979, op. cit., p. 56.
59. Ibid., p. 57.
60. Ibid., p. 55.
61. "Report on a Food-for-Work Project", Food Monitor, May-June 1979,
p. 10. For a reply by CARE, see John McNamara, "CARE's Aid to Haiti:
Food that Works", Food Monitor, January-February 1980, pp. 12-14.
62. Ibid.
63. Tony Jackson, 1979, op. cit., p. 5.
64. Community Systems Foundation, An Evaluation of the PL 480 Title II
Program in India, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June 1979, pp. 62-63.
65. John Osgood Field, "Development at the Grassroots: the Organizational
Imperative", The Fletcher Forum, Summer 1980, p. 157.
66. Ibid., pp. 163-164.
67. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit., p. 62-63.
68. Food for Peace, 1978 Annual Report on Public Law 480, 1979, p. 42.
69. Employment Through Food Aid, op. cit., pp. 35-37.
70. Ibid., p. 37.
71. WFP/CFA: 10/6 Add. C7, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Somalia
2294, August 1980, p. 14.
72. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit., p. 55.

REFERENCES CHAPTER 4
1. Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, US Government
Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, Table 17.
The exact number of MCH recipients is given as 16,090,100 of which 66%
are in Asia (10,779,800) and over half in India alone (8,156,000).
2. Ibid., drawn from Tables 16 and 17.
3. C. Capone, "A Review of an Experience with Food-Aided Nutrition
Programs", Nutrition Planning, May 1980, p. xxii.
4. Mary Ann Anderson, CARE Preschool Nutrition Project: Phase IIReport,
CARE, New York, August 1977, p. 51.
5. D. W. MacCorquodale, AID memorandum, Dominican Republic, 2 March
1978, p. 2.
6. Clapp and Mayne, Inc., Evaluation of PL 480 Title II Feeding Programs in
Honduras, Puerto Rico, 1977, p. 90.
The evaluators themselves did not see this as "reason to comment that

105
(References Ch 4)

since it does not make a difference why not discontinue the program".
However, since "the control group is no more under-nourished than those
at the centers" and 43% of the children receiving the rations lost weight
during the period, this would suggest that there is a need to consider
alternative approaches and not simply to increase the supplements, as the
report recommends.
7. "Encuesta Nutricional", Caritas de Guatemala, May 1977.
8. Denice Williams, Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Ghana,
Accra, 1977, p. 415.
9. Denice Williams, personal communication, 10 March 1978.
10. Food for Peace, 1981, op. cit., Table 17.
Of the 8,156,000 recipients, 6,000,000 are enrolled on CARE programmes.
The next largest distributor of US food aid is WFP, which has 1,585,000
recipients.
11. Community Systems Foundation, An Evaluation Report of the PL 480
Title II Program in India, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June 1979, p. 12.
12. Ibid., p. 46.
13. Robert R. Nathan Associates, Inc., An Evaluation Report of the PL 480
Title IIProgram in Morocco, Washington DC, 29 January, 1979, p. xx.
14. Judith W. Gilmore et al., Morrocco: Food Aid and Nutrition Education,
AID, Washington DC, August 1980, pp. 6-7.
The ratios are said to provide "40 percent of the caloric, 70 percent of
protein, and 73 percent to iron needs", (p. 4) The report also makes the
following observation: "An interesting finding, contrary to what we would
expect, was that CRS children who had been receiving only food for one
or two years in 1975 appear to be slightly more malnourished (33 percent)
than children just entering the program in 1978 (32 percent). . . . This
minimal effect of food by itself on nutritional status supports the con-
clusions of other evaluators of feeding programs that food supplements
must be accompanied by education and other improvements in health and
sanitation in order to maximize nutritional impact", (p. 6)
15. Personal communication of 12 December 1978, from Maria Colemont who
organised the survey. For more details see the chapter on the Dominican
Republic by Lindsey Hilsum in David Morley, Jon Rohde and Glen Wil-
liams (eds.), Health With the People, 1982, forthcoming.
16. Stewart Blumenfeld et al., "The Nutritional Impact of PL 480 Title II
in the Philippines, 1970-1980", (draft) USAID/Manila, January 1981,
Executive Summary, p. 3.
In the summary, the evaluators note that "an analysis of 238 cases revealed
that 53% showed improvement, 24% were unchanged and 23% regressed",
(p. 2) In view of such findings, it is worth asking whether the improve-
ment can be attributed to the supplementary feeding. As to what happens
when children leave the feeding programme, the evaluators report that the
data "cast doubt upon the long-term effectiveness of supplementary feed-
ing. Again, the paucity of data preclude a firm conclusion in this regard
but the fact that at Barangay Santa Cruz, of eight children who had
'graduated' from the program four months earlier, five had not gained
any further [weight] and three had declined, and perhaps more significantly,
of 14 'graduates' of the Santiago Nutri-Village, eight declined over the
next few month and . . . with Aldana, two of 12 declined and none improved;

106
 (Reference Ch 4)

all these create a nagging suspicion that the activities that accompany
feeding may not be very effective", (p. 33) They add that the "imper-
manence of the beneficial effect of supplementary feeding" has also been
noted in Alternative Nutrition/Health Intervention Effects and Cost-
Effectiveness, contract no. AID/ASIA C-1136, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, December 1980, p. 33.
17. Ibid., p. 43.
18. David McDowall, "A Case for Reassessment", Middle East International,
19 June 1981,p.12.
The WHO document from which McDowall quotes is "Health Needs of
Palestine Refugee Children", United Nations General Assembly, A/33/181,
17 October 1978, p. 4.
19. USAID Mission to the Dominican Republic, Health Sector Assessment for
the Dominican Republic, 19 February 1975, p. 229.
The paragraph goes on to explain that the concept of food replacement "is
supported by the very name of the program itself, 'breakfast program',
which leads parents to believe food distribution is a meal in itself. In
addition, meals are frequently served so late in the morning around
10 or 11 a.m. that parents may be actually reducing the amount of the
family's food available to the child because they feel he or she has already
been fed". The fact that such trivial factors as the name of the programme
can affect its success serves to indicate the operational difficulties of food
aid projects.
Anderson, 1977, op. cit., found the substitution rate in the Dominican
Republic to be 69%. (p. 92, Table 37)
20. Anderson, 1977, op. cit., p. 37.
21. Capone, 1980, op. cit., p. xxiii.
22. Clapp and Mayne, Inc., 1978, op. cit., p. 41.
23. Anderson, 1977, op. cit., p. 26.
24. Robert Cassen, "Welfare and Population: Notes on Rural India since
1960", Population and Development Review, September 1975, p. 47,
quoted in John G. Sommer, Beyond Charity, Overseas Development
Council, Washington DC, 1977, p. 49.
It is now known that the post-war emphasis on protein requirements was
exaggerated. "According to the 1948 figures, a child would need 15 per
cent of his diet in the form of protein. According to the 1971 figures,
5 to 6.5 per cent energy/protein ration is adequate". (Colin Tudge, The
Famine Business, Pelican, Penguin Books, London, 1979, p. 75.) About
60% of the food-stuffs released under Title II of PL 480 are blended
and most of these are protein-fortified.
25. M. A. Moore, "PL-480 Title II Program - FY 1978" (draft), prepared
for USAID, Dominican Republic, 21 November 1978, p. 13.
26. Comptroller General of the United States, Changes Needed in the Adminis-
tration of the Overseas Food Donation Program, Report to the Congress,
General Accounting Office, Washington DC, 15 October 1979, p. 58.
The full text reads, "Center administrators told us that the Title II food
assistance was supplementing the diets of people who could not otherwise
obtain the nutrition they needed. We noted, however, that Title II food
was not distributed to MCH districts on the basis of the number of eligible

107
(Reference Ch 4)

recipients. The MCH distribution official stated that the available quantity
of .food was simply divided equally among all districts. He said that until
the Ministry completed its study of identifying the most needy areas, there
was no other way to distribute the food", (p. 59)
27. Anderson, 1977, op. cit., p. 63.
28. Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/Overseas
Development Institute, London, 1979, p. 160.
29. Ibid.
30. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit., p. 40.
31. Nathan Associates, Inc., 1979, op. cit., p. 101.
32. Anderson, 1977, op. cit., p. 14.
Nathan Associates, Inc., 1979, op. cit., p. 77, also mentions that the MCH
programme in Morocco focuses on 2-5 year old children instead of on the
nutritionally vulnerable 1-3 group. This is policy decision taken to avoid
'competition' with a Ministry of Health programme aimed at the younger
group.
33. Checchi and Company, Food for Peace, An Evaluation of PL 480 Title II,
Volume One: A Global Assessment of the Program, Washington DC, July
1972, p. 55.
34. Ibid., p. 174.
35. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit., p. 47.
The paragraph continues, "Either new delivery methods should be in-
vestigated, or the emphasis on the objectives of reaching this target group
should be reduced". In other words, aims and claims should be
brought into line.
36. Figures taken from Food for Peace, 1981, op. cit., Table 17.
37. Food for Peace, 1978 Annual Report on Public Law 480, 1979, p. 41.
38. Foreign Assistance and Related Programs: Appropriations for 1980,
"Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations",
House of Representatives, Part 4, US Government Printing Office, Wash-
ington DC, 1979, p. 816.
39. Linda N. Haverberg, "Some Observations of the Church World Service
Nutrition Programs in Haiti and the Dominican Republic", Case Studies
of Development Programs, CWS, New York, October 1976, p. 17.
The section is worth quoting more fully. "In general, the program lacks
a clear direction and specific goals. It seems that operations have been
established based almost exclusively on the availability of supplies (medical
and food) and personnel . . . the majority of the 37 nutrition centers and
all 3 of the raw food distribution centers . . . are at present merely feeding
centers, and they constitute the major effort of the . . . Health and Nutri-
tion Program. . . . Not only are there numerous problems in day-to-day
operations, lack of adequate supervision, no formal educational programs
within the centers, and no regular provision of medical services, but it
seems that these centers are not even reaching the malnourished children
in the communities. This conclusion is based on the finding that over 50%
of the children currently enrolled in . . . nutrition centers are normal (as
judged by weight for age)." (pp. 17-18.) The operational problems which
are caused by the programmes being commodity-orientated and lacking
clear objectives are reiterated in other US Government evaluations of
PL 480 Title II.
108
 (Reference Ch 4)

40. Anderson, 1977, op. cit., p. 78.

41. Clapp and Mayne, Inc., 1978, op. cit., p. 24.
42. Food for Peace, Fiscal Year 1975: Annual Report on Public Law 480,
1977, p. 58.
43. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit., pp. 44-46.
44. Ibid., p. 45.
45. Ibid., p. 47.
This is followed by the recommendation that "programs which do not do
this should be actively discouraged".
46. Bantirgu Haile Mariam and Mario Maffi, "Evaluation of the Nutrition
Field Workers Programme Supported by Save the Children Fund", Ethiopia
Nutrition Institute, (mimeo) October 1979, p. 6.
47. USAID/Guatemala, "Survey of PL 480 Title II Food Distribution Centers
and Storage Facilities", October 1977, p. 15.
48. Patrick Marnham, Fantastic Invasion, Jonathan Cape, London, 1980,
p. 153.
49. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. 5, Interim Evaluation Summary Report 1, Pakistan
2237: "Supplementary feeding of infants, pre-school children, pregnant
women and nursing mothers". February, 1980, p. 4.
The following remarks on the educational performance of the project are
also made: "Education of mothers in health and nutrition is part of the
programme of the MCH centres. This is carried out mainly by talks, since
no facilities are available for practical demonstrations. In some centres
visual aids were available. No funds are available for purchasing local
foods for demonstrations", (p. 4) Such observations do indicate that
the educational component is not treated seriously, or even regarded
as an integral part of the programme. It seems ironic that a programme in
which WFP had already invested $17,489,600 worth of food (and a further
$1,540,000 in additional expenses) could not find the funds to buy local
foods for the purposes of demonstrating their correct use.
50. Merlyn Vemury, "Nutrition Education An Important Aspect of CARE's
Programming Efforts", in Kathryn Shack (ed.), Teaching Nutrition in
Developing Countries, Meals for Millions Foundation, Santa Monica, 1977,
pp.146-147.
51. Anderson, 1977, op. cit., p. 78.
52. James Austin et al., Nutrition Intervention Assessment and Guidelines,
Harvard Institute for International Development, Report Submitted to
the United Natons ACC Sub-committee on Nutrition, June 1978, p. 9.
One programme which does claim success with its education effort is
described in Gilmore et al., 1980, op. cit.
53. G. H. Beaton and H. Ghassemi, "Supplementary Feeding Programmes for
Young Children in Developing Countries, Report Prepared for UNICEF
and the ACC Sub-committee on Nutrition of the UN", October 1979,
p. iv.
54. "Conclusions and Recommendations of the Second Interagency Evalua-
tion/Appraisal Mission for the WFP-supported Project Bangladesh 2226:
Vulnerable Group Feeding in Distressed Areas", WFP, 13 February-4
March 1978, p. 25.
A similar comment is made in the WFP/FAO audio-visual production

109
(Reference Ch 4)

"Roadway to Development: WFP in Mexico". Item 47 reads, "since some

of the foodstuffs are strange or virtually unknown to the village people,
the government has sent a trained nutrition expert to explain methods of
preparing food for the table". Item 52 shows the people how to use " . . .
WFP rations with which they have now become familiar and have learned
to appreciate". This kind of comment is not uncommon in WFP reports.
55. USAID Mission to the Dominican Republic, 1975, op. cit., p. 230.
56. Roland Bunch et al., "Problems With Food Distribution Programs: A Case
in Point", World Neighbors, Oklahoma City, (leaflet) 1978, p. 2.
57. Much has been written about this subject. Among the documents are
Mike Muller, The Baby Killer (3rd Edition), War on Want, London, 1977;
Andy Chetley, The Baby Killer Scandal, War on Want, London, 1979;
Dianna Melrose, The Great Health Robbery: Baby Milk and Medicines
in Yemen, OXFAM, Oxford, 1981; James Firebrace, Infant Feeding in
the Yemen Arab Republic, CURfWzv on Want, London, 1981.
58. OXFAM Project KEN 105A, Gill Tremlett, "Lake Kenyatta Settlement
Scheme Report, July 1980".
59. Personal interview with Chris Dammers, OXFAM Field Director in Cairo,
8 June 1979.
60. Mariam and Maffi, 1979, op. cit., Summary, p. 1.
61. Ibid., p. 11.
62. Jon Rohde, personal communication, 27 May 1980.
For further comments by Dr Rohde, see Jon Eliot Rohde and Lukas
Hendrata, "Development from Below: Transformation of Village-based
Nutrition Projects to a National Family Nutrition Programme in Indonesia,"
in Nevin S. Scrimshaw and Mitchel B. Wallerstein (eds.), Nutrition Policy
Implementation: Issues and Experience, Plenum Press, New York, 1982,
and John Eliot Rohde, M.D., "Mother Milk and the Indonesian Economy:
A Major National Resource", Journal of Tropical Paediatrics, Vol. 28,
1982, in press.
63. Roland Bunch, personal communication, 10 June 1980.
64. OXFAM, Annual Report: Zaire, 1979-1980.
65. OXFAM Field Report, 1 June 1979.
66. Caritas de Guatemala, "Segundo Informe y Evaluacion del Programa
Promocidn y Nutricion, Julio 1978 a Enero 1979", (mimeo) p. 98. (Trans-
lated by Tony Jackson.)
67. Letter from a parish priest, Nueva Ecija, to CRS Head Office in the Philip-
pines, 31 March 1979.
68. Tony Jackson, "Preliminary Report: PL 480 Title II Food Aid to the
Dominican Republic", OXFAM, (mimeo) April 1979, pp. 8-9.
69. Miriam Krantz, "A Case History Replacing Imported Foods with Local
Foods", League for International Food Education, Newsletter, Washing-
ton DC, March 1979, pp. 1-2.
The account of the project states: "The rehabilitation program has demon-
strated to both mothers and other members of the family that milk
powder and medicine are not necessary to treat children suffering from
protein-calorie malnutrition. By feeding her child foods which she has
selected and prepared herself, the mother can have the satisfaction of
seeing her child restored to health in two or four weeks time." (p. 2)

110
70. World Neighbors, "Women Cut Malnutrition with Local Foods", World
Neighbors Newsletter, Spring 1979. See also, "Topic: Food Self-sufficin-
cy", World Neighbors, In Action, Vol. 12, No. 3E.
71. Thomas Marchione, "Food and Nutrition in Self-reliant National Develop-
ment: The Impact on Child Nutrition of Jamaican Government Policy",
Medical Anthropology, Winter 1977, pp. 66-67.
72. Beaton and Ghassemi, 1979, op. cit., p. 64.
73. Capone, 1980, op. cit., p. xxiii.
74. Ibid., p. xxiv.
75. Letter from a parish priest, Neuva Ecija, the Philippines, 1979, op. cit.
76. USAID Mission to the Dominican Republic, 1975, op. cit., p. 141.
77. Simon Maxwell, "Food aid for supplementary feeding programmes:
An analysis", Food Policy, November 1978, p. 297.
78. Harvard Institute for International Development, 1978, op. cit., p. 8. For
further discussion on carefully controlled health programmes, see Davidson
R. Gwatkin et al., Can health and nutrition interventions make a dif-
ference? Overseas Development Council, Washington DC, February 1980.
79. Beaton and Ghassemi, 1979, op. cit., p. 44.

REFERENCES CHAPTER 5

1. Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, US Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, Table 17.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Food Aid to Education and Training, WFP, Rome, 1970, p. 13.
5. John G. Sommer, Beyond Charity, Overseas Development Council, Wash-
ington DC, 1977, p. 49.
6. Food for Peace, 1981, op. cit. This figure is obtained by adding the
383,700 recipients in the "general relief" category to the 912,800 under
"other child feeding" and "preschool feeding" and expressing the sum as a
percentage of the total number of recipients 66,360,889.
7. Christopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London, 1979, p. 138.
8. Ibid., pp. 138-139.
9. Food for Peace, 1981, op. cit., Table 17. Partly because it misses its main
"target" group, school feeding in India was scheduled to be phased out by
1980, according to a US Government report written in 1976. However,
the programme actually grew from the 1976 figure of 7,600,000 recipients
to 9,400,000 in 1978-79. (See Comptroller General of the United States,
Impact of U.S. Development and Food Aid in Selected Developing Coun-
tries, General Accounting Office, Washington DC, 22 April 1976, p. 14.)
This is a good example of how food aid tends to become institutionalised,
despite the evidence and even when governments plan to stop it.
10. Comptroller General of the United States, Changes Needed in the Admin-
istration of the Overseas Food Donation Program, Report to the Congress,
General Accounting Office, Washington DC, 15 October 1979, p. 27.
11. Ibid., p. 26.

Ill
(Reference Ch 5)

12. Stevens, 1979, op. cit., p. 139.

13. UN Observer and International Report, March 1980.
14. WFP/CFA: 11/10 Add. A2, Interim Evaluation Summary Report, Brazil
2325: "Nutrition Education and Supplementary Feeding in Primary
Schools", 1981 (a), p. 7.
15. Ibid., p. 6.
16. Stewart Blumenfeld et al., "The Nutritional Impact of PL 480 Title II
in the Philippines, 1970-1980," (draft) USAID/Manila, January 1981,
pp. 110-112.
17. Ibid., p. 112.
18. Robert Cassen, "Welfare and Population: Notes on Rural India since
1960". Population and Development Review, September 1975, p. 47,
quoted in Sommer, op. cit., 1977, p. 49.
19. Maria A. Tagle, "Operational Conflicts of Food Aid at the Recipient
Level: Those Who Know Don't Plan and Those Who Plan Don't Know",
Food and Nutrition Bulletin, United Nations University, July 1980,
p. 12.
20. Simon Maxwell, "Food aid for supplementary feeding programmes: An
analysis", Food Policy, November 1978, p. 294.
21. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. 1, Interim Evaluation Summary Report, Islamic
Republic of Mauritania 055, "Institutional feeding", February 1980, p. 6.
22. Community Systems Foundation, An Evaluation of the PL 480 Title IF
Program in India, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June 1979, p. 73.
23. Richard L. Shortlidge, Jr., "Assessment of the Educational and Health
Impacts of the Mid Day Meal Program," USAID/New Delhi, 21 July 1980,
p. 10
24. Ibid., p. 11.
25. WFP/CFA, 1981 (a), op. cit., p. 7.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Paul Harrison, Inside the Third World, Pelican, Penguin Books, London,
1979, pp. 318-319.
29. Checchi and Company, Evaluation of the PL 480 Title II Program: Country
Report: The Dominican Republic, Washington DC, 11 May 1972, p. 28.
30. "CARE-Haiti, PL 480 Title II Feeding Program Plan for FY 1979," Port-
au-Prince, 15 March 1978, p. 12. Since only about half the children of
primary school age attend school in Haiti, this 4% figure represents only
a tiny proportion of the child population.
31. Dr Guillermo Chihuahua, personal communication, 26 November 1976.
32. Paul Harrison, 1979, op. cit., p. 310. Chapter 17 of Harrison's book, "The
Alienation Machine: the Uneducated and the Miseducated", gives a pro-
vocative analysis of the state of formal education in the developing world.
On the general topic of education in developing countries, see the World
Bank study edited by John Simmons, The Education Dilemma, Pergamon
Press, Oxford, 1980.
33. Report on Interim Evaluation of WFP-assisted Project Arab Republic of
Egypt 644: "School Feeding Programme", WFP, 1976, p. 5. 63% of

112
 primary age children are enrolled and of these, 85% reach the final year
of primary, i.e. 53% of all those of primary age.
34. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit., p. 74.
35. WFP/CFA, 1981 (a), op. cit., p. 6. Earlier, the report had stated that the
number of school children benefiting from the WFP commodities "had
exceeded the project targets, while the number of pre-school children
is well below target. However, each child is receiving much less food than
was envisaged by WFP. The reason for the low participation of pre-school
children is to be found in the lack of facilities and structure to distribute
the food in some centres", (p. 5 emphasis added) See chapter 7 for more
discussion of the problems of administering project food aid.
36. WFP/CFA: 11/10 Add. A3. Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Central
African Republic 478, "Pre-school feeding and community develop-
ment", and 2006, "School feeding", 1981, p. 7.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid. pp. 7-8.
39. WFP/CFA: 11/11 (WPME) Add. 1. Progress Report on Approved Project:
Botswana 324: "Feeding of primary school children and vulnerable
groups", March 1981, p. 4.
40. Tagle, 1980, op. cit., p. 10.
41. An interesting twist to the management problem comes from the Sudan
where food aid for school feeding is sold at Port Sudan and the money
used for local purchases of food. "In order to avoid the difficulties en-
countered in securing the transport of the commodities from Port Sudan
to the provincial capital, WFP wheat flour is sold in Port Sudan at current
local prices and the proceeds are turned over to the schools for the pur-
chase of the required bread from the local bakeries." (WFP/CFA: 11/11
(WPMN) Add. 1. Progress Report on Approved Project: Sudan 531:
"Assistance for School Feeding", March 1981, p. 3.) This circumvents
the practical problems of transport and storage while keeping costs to a
minimum. It also suggests that food is available in the country and that it
is money that is required.

REFERENCES CHAPTER 6

1. Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, US Government
Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, p. 25.
2. Ibid.
3. Sumanta Banerjee, "Food Aid: Charity or Profitable Business?" Economic
and Political Weekly, India, 7 February 1981, p. 176.
4. The publication World Food Programme: What it is, What it does, How it
works, FAO, Rome 1981, states on p. 5 that, "The Programme's contribu-
tion is only a part of the total cost of a project, the remainder often
three or four times the value of the food input being borne by the bene-
ficiary country".
5. European Communities, Court of Auditors, Special Report on Community
Food Aid, 30 October 1980, p. 34.
6. Food for Peace, 1978 Annual Report on Public Law 480, p. 39, and Food
for Peace, 1981, op. cit., p. 25. Although the comparison is not exact,

113
(Reference Ch 6)

because the tonnages of the different food items changed from one year to
the next, the trend here is clear.
7. Ibid.
8. WFP/CFA, 11 /4 "Annual Report of the Executive Director on the Develop-
ment of the Programme: 1980", April 1981, pp. 29-30.
9. Ibid., p. 30.
10. Food for Peace, 1979, op. cit., Table 2.
11. The figure is drawn from an AID draft memorandum of 8 March 1978
to the AID Program Officer in the Dominican Republic. The memorandum
appears in the Appendix of Tony Jackson's "Preliminary Report: PL 480
Title II Food Aid to the Dominican Republic", OXFAM, (mimeo) April
1979.
The $13,000,000 figure goes back only to 1968, whereas those from the
Food for Peace document quoted above cover the period 1962-1978.
12. USAID Mission to the Dominican Republic, Health Sector Assessment for
the Dominican Republic, 19 February 1975, p. 233.
13. From Jackson, 1979, op. cit., pp. 56.
14. Simon Maxwell, "Food aid for supplementary feeding programmes - An
analysis", Food Policy, November 1978, p. 295, fn. 36.
15. Ibid., p. 297.
16. Ibid., p. 295, fn. 36.
17. Mary Ann Anderson, CARE Preschool Nutrition Project: Phase HReport,
CARE, New York, 1977, p. 87.
18. Ibid., p. 91.
Since the success in "reducing the rates of malnutrition amongst pre-
schoolers" was shown in the same report to have been very slight, this
remark is something of an understatement.
19. Ibid., p. 86.
20. See Chapter 4 and OXFAM Project DMR 13 for details.
21. Food for Peace, 1981, op. cit., Table 17.
22. Richard L. Shortlidge, Jr., "Assessment of the Educational and Health
Impacts of the Mid Day Meal Program", USAID/New Delhi, 21 July 1980,
p. 14.
23. Ibid., pp. 14-15.
24. Ibid.
25. Hjalmar Brundin, "Preliminary Report: FFW Secondary Effect Methodo-
logy Study", USAID/Dacca, Bangladesh, (mimeo) 4 May 1979, pp.43-44.
26. Ibid., pp. 41-42.
27. Stevens, 1979, op. cit., p. 112, but see pp. 111-113 for the whole dis-
cussion, and p. 130 for the information about costs.
28. Ibid., p. 113.
29. Hans Singer, Food Aid Policies and Programmes: A Survey of Studies of
Food Aid, submitted to WFP/CFA, March, 1978, p. 56, quoting Beaudry-
Darisme and Latham.
30. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. 5, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Pakistan
2237: "Supplementary feeding of infants, pre-school children, pregnant
women and nursing mothers", February 1980, p. 4.

114
31. WFP/CFA: 10/6 Add. Al, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Philip-
pines 2318: "Assistance to elementary schools in Mindanao", August
1980,p.3.
32. WFP/CFA: 9/11 (WPMF) Add. 1, Progress Report on Approved Project:
Afghanistan 599: "Assistance to health centres, polyclinics and kinder-
gartens", February 1980, p. 4.
33. Maxwell, 1980, op. cit., p. 296.
34. Ibid.
35. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. Al, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Islamic
Republic of Mauritania 55: "Institutional feeding", February 1980, pp. 1
and 5.
36. Ibid., p. 5.
37. Robert Cassen, "Welfare and Population: Notes on Rural India since
1960", Population and Development Review, September 1975, p. 47,
quoted in John G. Sommer, Beyond Charity, Overseas Development
Council, Washington DC, 1977, p. 49.
38. Shortlidge, 1980, op. cit., p. 15.
39. See David McDowall, "A case for reassessment", Middle East International,
19 June 1981, p. 12, fora strong argument along this line.
40. Stevens, 1979, op. cit., p. 60.
41. Gene Stoltzfus and Dorothy Friesen, "Voluntary Agencies in Calcutta",
Just World, a report of an international assembly of development agencies,
Calcutta, December 1979, p. 35.
42. Stevens, 1979, op. cit., p. 60.

REFERENCES CHAPTER 7

1. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. 5, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Pakistan

2237: "Supplementary feeding of infants, pre-school children, pregnant
women and nursing mothers", February 1980, p. 3.
Despite this, by July 1980, WFP was recommending that the project be
continued for another two years and three months at a cost to it of over
$29 million. (WFP/CFA: 10/8 (WPMP)) Add. 1., Project for CFA Ap-
proval: Pakistan 2237, July 1980, p. 1.) This second phase began in
January 1982, with some of the managerial problems now reported to be
largely overcome. (WFP/CFA: 12/12 (WPMP) Add. 5, February 1982.)
2. WFP/CFA:8/7 (WPMF) Add. 2, Progress Report on Approved Project:
Nepal 2045: "Construction and improvement of mule trails and a jeep
track in the hills", August 1979, p. 4.
3. Comptroller General of the United States, Changes Needed in the Ad-
ministration of the Overseas Food Donation Program, Report to the
Congress, General Accounting Office, Washington DC, 15 October 1979,
pp. 55-56.
4. Ibid., p. 32.
5. European Communities, Court of Auditors, Special Report on Com-
munity Food Aid, 30 October 1980, p. 132.

115
(Reference Ch 7)

6. Christopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London, 1979, p. 88.
7. Ibid, pp. 88 & 104.
8. Ibid., p. 106.
9. Ibid., p. 142.
10. WFP/CFA: 11/10 Add. A2, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Brazil
2325: "Nutrition education and supplementary feeding in primary
schools", February 1981, p. 9.
11. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. Cl, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Sri
Lanka 748: "Rehabilitation of village tanks", December 1979, p. 5.
12. WFP/CFA: 10/6 Add. C5, Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Senegal
2236: "Forestry works", August 1980, p. 5.
13. Clapp and Mayne, Inc., Evaluation of PL 480 Title II Feeding Programs
in Honduras, Puerto Rico, 1977, p. 84.
14. Personal letter from field worker of 12 December 1978.
15. Marcon A. Moore, Administrative Specialist, AID, Memorandum to the
file, Dominican Republic, 6 June 1978.
16. Hjalmar Brundin, "Preliminary Report FFW Secondary Effect Methodo-
logy Study", USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 4 May 1979 (a), p. 8.
17. Ibid., p. 23.
18. Robin J. Biellik and Peggy L. Henderson, "Mortality, Nutritional Status
and Dietary Conditions in a Food Deficit Region: North Teso District,
Uganda, December 1980", Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 1981, p. 169.
19. Hjalmar Brundin, "Food for Work in Bangladesh: Recommendations for
Improved Program Effectiveness", USAID/Dacca, (mimeo) 31 July 1979,
(b),p. 9.
20. David Henshaw, "The food aid fraud", The Listener, 21 August 1980,
p. 228. This article followed the radio programme 'File on Four', broad-
cast on 20 August 1980, in which the effects of food aid in Bangladesh
were examined. It included interviews with OXFAM field workers as well
as other aid officials and recipients.
21. Brundin, 1979 (b), op. cit., p. 18.
22. Geoffrey Lean, "Scandal of UN's food aid in Africa", The Observer,
17 June 1979. (Quoting Dr Siegfried Bethke, formerly a senior executive
in the WFP.)
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. In 1977, 10,000 tons of Title II grain were donated to the Government of
Ghana. What happened to it is recorded in a report by AID's Area Auditor
General Africa, Report on Examination of the PL 480 Title II Emer-
gency Food Program in Ghana, AID, Audit Report No. 3-641-78-1, 6
October 1977. One section reads, "We reviewed Government of Ghana
records in Takoradi, Tamale, Bolgatanga, and four districts' offices and
noted that the records maintained were incomplete and inaccurate. In
Tamale, all original distribution records have been destroyed by Govern-
ment of Ghana officials. Available reconstructed distribution records were
of little value. In Bolgatanga, we noted that the source documents (way-
bills) did not agree with the distribution ledger and that neither the way-

116
 (Reference Ch 7)

bills nor the distribution ledger agreed with the distribution summary
report. In the districts, we noted that the monthly receipt and distribu-
tion reports did not agree with the detail retained in the district", (p. 3)
The audit concluded, "Undoubtedly much of the emergency food pro-
vided did not reach priority target groups of the affected population . . .
we believe that a significant portion of this food was either diverted and
sold or distributed in a way that was not condoned by the [AID] Mission",
(p. 4) Tony Visocchi, "The follies of food aid", The Tablet, 7 June 1980,
pp. 548-9, discusses the famine and EEC problems with its food aid.
26. Tony Swift, formerly Press Officer, OXFAM.
27. Reported by various agency officials to the author, Haiti, November
1978.
28. Personal communication from a German Government evaluator, 1981.
29. Stevens, 1979, op. cit., p. 142.
30. European Communities, Court of Auditors, 1980, op. cit., p. 124.
31. Richard L. Shortlidge, Jr., "Assessment of the Educational Health Impacts
of the Mid Day Meal Program," USAID/ New Delhi, 21 July 1980.
P. 4.
32. WFP/CFA: 9/6 "World Food Programme's Contribution to the United
Nations Decade for Women: Priorities for 1980-1985", Report by the
Executive Director, February 1980, p. 21.
The extent of the commitment which WFP "does not have the capacity
to monitor closely", is $2,086 million to 377 development projects
during the five years from 1975 to 1979. (p. 2)
33. European Communities, Court of Auditors, 1980, op. cit., p. 107.
34. Ibid.
35. Shortlidge, 1980, op. cit., p. 15.
36. WFP/CFA, 9/6, 1980, op. cit., p. 21.
37. G. H. Beaton and H. Ghassemi, "Supplementary Feeding Programmes for
Young Children in Developing Countries, Report Prepared for UNICEF
and the ACC Sub-committee on Nutrition of the United Nations", Octo-
ber 1979, p. 58.
38. WFP/CFA, 9/6, 1980, op. cit, p. 28.
39. Community Systems Foundation, An Evaluation Report of the PL 480
Title IIProgram in India, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June 1979, pp. 13-17.
40. Comptroller General of the United States, 1979, op. cit, p. 33.
41. European Communities, Court of Auditors, 1980, op. cit, p. 118.
42. Comptroller General of the United States, 1979, op. cit.
43. Alan J. Taylor, An Evaluation of the Problems Limiting the Promotion
of Rural Development and the Effective Relief of Suffering, by Catholic
Relief Services - USCC in Mexico, Central America, Panama, and the
Caribbean, with a Discussion of Policy Options, CRS, New York, 24
September 1979, from when the programme began, in the 1950s.
44. Community Systems Foundation, 1979, op. cit, p. 1. According to the
1979 Food for Peace Annual Report (Table 2), over $1,006,000,000 of
food aid had been distributed in India by voluntary agencies up to 30
September 1979, from when the programme began in the 1950s.

117
 REFERENCES CHAPTER 8
1. See Bibliography for works on this subject.
2. Some examples, chosen at random from WFP project reports, will illustrate
the way in which calculations are made.
a) WFP/CFA: 10/8 (WPME) Add. 3. Project for CFA Approval: Comoro
Islands 2545: "Multipurpose rural development", September 1980,
pp. 15-16: "The quantities of cereals supplied by WFP will represent
about 8.4 percent of average imports for 1978-79 and about 12 per-
cent of local production. The amount of edible oil will represent
about 2.3 percent of local production. Imports of oil have been very
small and mostly related to food aid. . . [The Comoro Islands are]
recognised as one of the food priority countries.
Considering this and the small quantities involved, no adverse effect
on commercial supplies or domestic production is anticipated."
b) WFP/CFA: 10/8 (WPML) Add. 2. Project for CFA Approval: Brazil
2540: "Rural and community development in the Jequitinhonha
Valley", August 1980, p. 17:
"The WFP supply of cereals (2,880 tons a year) will be negligible
both in relation to average annual imports as well as domestic pro-
duction during 1976-78. . .These beneficiaries have very low income
and their food intake is usually inadequate. The WFP supplies can,
therefore, be expected to result mostly in additional consumption.
Moreover, the quantities involved are relatively small; therefore, no
adverse effect on commercial supplies or domestic production is
anticipated."
c) WFP/CFA: 11/14 (WPMA) Add. 1. Project Approved by the Executive
Director, Angola 2480: "Assistance to kindergartens, orphanages and
centres for physically handicapped", January 1981, p. 6:
"The WFP supply of cereals will represent about 3.1 per cent of
average annual imports during 1977-79, and about 1.1 per cent of
local production. . . . The supply of pulses will amount to about 6.8
per cent of average imports during 1977-78 but will be negligible
in relation to local production. . . . The WFP food supplies will be
used to provide cooked meals and snacks, free, to beneficiaries under
the project through kindergartens, orphanages, and work centres.
These beneficiaries belong to very low income groups and their food
intake is usually inadequate. The WFP supplies can therefore be
expected to lead mostly to additional consumption. Considering
this, and the relatively small quantities involved, no adverse effect
on commercial supplies or local production is anticipated."
3. Siegfried Bethke, "Food Aid A Negative Factor?" Aussen Politik,
(German Foreign Affairs Review), No. 2, 1980, p. 192.
4. "Development assistance: is money more useful than food?" World Food
Programme News, January-March 1981, p. 6.
5. Mary Ann Anderson, CARE Preschool Nutrition Project: Phase IIReport,
CARE, New York, August 1977, p. 40.
6. Ibid., p. 87.
7. Denice Williams, Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Ghana, Accra,
1977, pp. 112-113.

118
 (Reference Ch 8)

8. "Evaluation of the USAID/Guatemala Supported Food/Cash Community

Development Program", CRS Reference Project Number 76-44 (E) CRS,
Guatemala, 15 April 1977, p. 8.
Although people were able to lower their "market expenditures for
traditional foods", they also had to buy sugar and cinnamon to add to
the food aid: this effectively cancelled out part of their savings, (pp. 7-8)
9. Tony Jackson, "Food Aid Versus the Peasant Farmer", Food Monitor,
May/June 1979, p. 8.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. WFP/CFA: 8/6 Add. C.3. Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Bangla-
desh 2197: "Relief works programme for land and water development",
August 1979, p. 6.
13. "Report on a Food-for-Work Project", Food Monitor, May/June 1979,
p. 10.
14. Ibid.
15. "Interview in Guatemala with Francisco Batzibal and Benito Sicajan
Sipac", The 7 Days Planner, Issue 3, OXFAM-America, 1978.
16. S. Bethke, "Notes on Future WFP Food Aid Policy in West Africa",
WFP project review, 22 August 1977, p. 7.
17. Tony Visocchi, "The follies of food aid", The Tablet, London, 7 June
1980, p. 549.
18. Chiristopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London, 1979, p. 191. See pp. 188-195
for discussion on direct impact of project food aid on agricultural pro-
duction.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
See also Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, US
Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1981, Table 17.
21. WFP/CFA: 9/10 Add. Bl. Interim Evaluation Summary Report: Lesotho
352: "Soil and water convervation and road improvement", February
1980, p. 5.
22. Figures drawn from Food for Peace Annual Reports between 1975 and
1979. Population figures for Lesotho taken from World Bank, World
Bank Atlas: Population, Per Capita Product and Growth Rates, Wash-
ington DC, 1977.
23. Tony Jackson, 1979, op. cit. p. 8.
24. Service Chre'tien d'Haiti, Annual Report for 1978, p. 8.
25. Tony Jackson, 1 979, op. cit., p. 8.
26. CARE Haiti Program Report 1978, CARE, Port-au-Prince, p. 11. Three
of WFP's warehouses were to be in the same towns as three of CARE's.
One town, Gonaives, was to have three food aid warehouses, one belonging
to WFP, one to CARE and one to the West German group, Welthunger-
hilfe. Sometimes the agencies compete not only with local farmers but
also among themselves.
27. Ibid., appendix at end of Report.

119
28. Tony Jackson, 1979, op. cit, p. 9.
29. Ibid.

REFERENCES CHAPTER 9

1. Christopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London, 1979, pp. 198-199.
2. Community Systems Foundation, An Evaluation Report of the PL 480
Title II Program in India, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June 1979, p. 101.

120
APPENDIX
The following is a brief description of some of the countries and institutions
that provide food aid. For much fuller accounts, see the books by Stevens and
Wallerstein, listed in the bibliography. Individual agencies also provide annual
reports etc.
UNITED STATES FOOD AID
The US is the biggest donor of food aid, accounting for about 50% of western
donors' disbursements in cash terms in 1980. The US food aid programme comes
under Public Law 480, the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act,
popularly known as "Food for Peace". The law was passed by Congress in 1954
and has since been amended on various occasions.
Broadly, the objectives of PL 480 are:
to expand international trade;
to develop and expand overseas markets for American farm products;
to prevent or alleviate malnutrition and hunger throughout the world;
to encourage economic development and improve food production in less
developed countries, and
to advance the objectives of US foreign policy.
In 1978-79 the total cost of the PL 480 programme to the US Government was
$1,375,000,000. The food supplied accounted for 4% of US agricultural exports.
There are three "Titles" or sections of the PL 480 Law which govern the distri-
bution of food aid:
Title I
Title I of PL 480 provides for the concessional sales of agricultural commodities
to "friendly countries". Agreements may be signed either for dollar credit with
up to 20 years to repay, or for convertible local currency credit with up to 40
years to repay. There is a grace period of up to 2 years for dollar credit agree-
ments and up to 10 years for local currency agreements. Down payments in dol-
lars may be required. The interest rates are set by law at a minimum of 2% for
the grace period and 3% thereafter. For the majority of Title I agreements the
minimum rates have been used. Most of the foods provided are basic grains
(wheat and rice). Edible oil, cotton and tobacco are also included.
In 1978-79 Egypt was the largest Title I recipient, accounting for almost 30% of
the total in dollar terms, followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh, Korea, Pakistan and
Portugal. Governments often sell Title I food through normal, commercial
channels, gaining use of the cash resulting from the sales. However they are ex-
pected to undertake various self-help measures using these funds in order to
qualify for participation in the programme.
Title II
This Title covers donations of food "to meet famine or other urgent relief re-
quirements, to combat malnutrition (especially in children), and to promote
economic and community development". In 1978-79 73% of Title II food in cash
terms was distributed by US voluntary agencies, principally by CARE and CRS,
19% by WFP, and the remainder went to recipient governments under bilateral
arrangements. 1,460,000 metric tons of food were provided for projects assisting
66,000,000 people in 80 countries. Wheat and wheat products were the major

121
 Pre-School and
other child feeding

Emergency
assistance
(refugees, disaster,
general relief).
14.6%

Use of US Project Food Aid

by Type of Programme
(Expressed in Value of Food as
a Percentage of Total Cost: 1978-9)

Food for Peace, 1979 Annual Report on Public Law 480, US Government
Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1981, Table 16.

122
commodities donated, followed by corn-soya-milk and vegetable oil. Many of
the food-stuffs provided under Title II are blended, usually soy-fortified, reflect-
ing the emphasis on improving the nutritional status of the recipients.
India was the programme's biggest client in 1978-79, with over 29,000,000
recipients, of whom 9,400,000 were enrolled in school feeding and 8,156,000 in
MCH. Bangladesh had the next largest number of recipients, almost 8,700,000,
the great majority on FFW. The Philippines had almost 3,000,000 and Egypt over
2,000,000. Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Zambia all had over
1,000,000 recipients. CARE distributed food to over 30,000,000 people, WFP
to almost 15,000,000 and CRS to 10,000,000.
In cash terms, Title II accounted for 40% of the PL 480 programme in 1978-79,
including shipping costs.
A 1977 Congressional mandate established that a certain amount of food must
be distributed each year under Title II. This is known as the minimum mandated
tonnage and for 1981-82 stood at 1,700,000 tons.
Title III
In 1977 a new section, Title III, was written into the law. Under it, payments for
Title I commodities may be waived if the money is used for development projects
mutually agreed upon by the US and the recipient government. It is envisaged
that this will become an increasingly favoured form of aid. It is known as the
"Food for Development Program".
Cargo Preference Act
This Act requires that 50% of the PL 480 food should be carried by US vessels.
FOOD AID FROM THE EEC
The EEC as an entity is the second largest food aid donor after the US. In 1980
the value of its food aid amounted to $437,000,000, compared to the US total
of $1,307,000,000. However, the EEC only gives grants and has no concessional
sales programme. Its food consists mostly of cereals, skimmed milk powder and
butteroil, and goes directly to governments or via international agencies, princi-
pally the WFP. UNRWA, UNICEF and non-governmental organizations also
receive significant tonnages.
Food aid donated to governments is considered as a means of helping ease their
balance of payments difficulties. Governments may sell the food and use the
money from the sales as budgetary support. Among the major recipients of EEC
food aid from 1977-79 were Bangladesh, Egypt, India and Vietnam. However, at
the time of going to press it is EEC policy not to give aid to Vietnam. Operation
Flood in India receives large quantities of milk powder and butteroil.
In addition to the above, some EEC member states donate food on an individual
basis. In 1980 this came to about $280,000,000 in value and consisted mainly
of cereals or of money to fund food aid programmes. All the aid is given as
grants either directly to governments or via international agencies, particularly
the WFP.
CANADA
In 1980 Canada provided $165,000,000 of food aid, both bilaterally and through
international organizations, mainly the WFP. Almost all of it was on a grant basis.
JAPAN
In 1980 Japan provided $271,000,000 of food aid, of which $206,000,000 was

123
 Food Aid from Western Donors, 1980, in Millions of Dollars
Bilateral loans Bilateral grants Multilateral grants Total
Australia 38.7 25.3 64.0
Austria - - 2.6 2.6
Belgium 5.2 34.1 39.3
Canada 2.5 76.0 86.3 164.8
Denmark 2.4 42.6 45.0
Finland - - 4.2 4.2
France 38.1 84.7 122.8
Germany 61.1 152.6 213.7
H- Ital
y
21.2 54.6 75.8
to 206.3 12.8 42.2 261.3
& Japan
Netherlands 26.6 76.6 103.2
New Zealand - - 0.9 0.9
Norway 0.4 21.9 22.3
Sweden 7.7 39.5 47.2
Switzerland 15.8 12.1 27.9
United Kingdom 21.4 95.5 116.9
United States 687.0 471.0 149.0 1307.0
TOTAL 2618.9
Of the food aid provided[ by EEC member states, the EEC as an entity disbursed $275,500,000
on a bilateral grant basis and $161,400,000 on a multilateral grant basis, for a total of $436,900,000.
Source: 1981 Review: Development Co-operation, OECD, Paris, 1981, Table A.10.
on concessional terms similar to PL 480 Title I.
THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
WFP was set up in 1962 by the UN and FAO. It is supervised by a 30-nation
body, the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes (CFA), which meets
twice yearly in Rome to approve projects and to "evolve and coordinate short-
term and longer-term food aid policies . . . " WFP's main aim is to stimulate
economic and social progress by using food aid in development projects. Up to
1981, less than 20% of its resources had been distributed as relief.
WFP resources come from over 100 countries in the form of food, cash or
services such as shipping. The US is the largest contributor of food, and the EEC
and Canada are also important donors. Saudi Arabia is now a major cash donor.
By October 1981, pledges to WFP of food etc. for the 1981-82 period totalled
$759,000,000. For 1983-84 WFP hopes to raise $1,200,000,000 in food, cash
and services.
WFP pays for the food to be transported to the borders of the recipient country
(sometimes inland also). The local government is responsible for distributing the
food and carrying out the projects. WFP has about 150 field officers living in the
countries where it works.
CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
CRS is the official overseas relief and development agency of the US Catholic
community. Organized in 1943, it now works in about 80 countries in the de-
veloping world. CRS is supported by both government and private contributions.
In 1979-80 $250,000,000 of its income came from the US Government and the
EEC in the form of food and other commodities or to pay shipping costs.
CRS generally channels its assistance through local Catholic agencies such as
local branches of Caritas.
CARE (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere)
Founded in 1945 in the US, CARE is a private voluntary agency working in
about 40 Third World countries. In 1980-81 it delivered PL 480 food to the
value of $199,000,000, including shipping costs. 84% of its programme activities
involved food distribution. CARE receives private as well as government dona-
tions and has information and fundraising offices not only in the US and Canada
but also in some European countries.
CARE primarily disburses its food aid through local government institutions
such as schools.

125
LIST OF THE MAJOR AGENCIES INVOLVED WITH PROJECT FOOD AID

Canadian International Development Agency

200 rue Principale
Hull, Quebec
Canada Kl A 0G4
CARE
660 First Avenue
New York, New York 10016, USA
Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
1011 First Avenue
New York, New York 10022, USA
European Economic Community (EEC)
Food Aid Division
Commission of the European Communities
200 rue de la Loi
1049, Brussels, Belgium
US Government
Office of Food for Peace
Room 402 5A-8
Agency for International Development
Washington DC, 20523, USA
World Food Programme (WFP)
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
Other UN agencies, particularly UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees),
UNRWA and UNICEF also use food aid.

126
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
The present study involved the collection of hundreds of documents on all
aspects of food aid. The following is a selected list of some of the most relevant
writings on the subject. Further material is referenced in the footnotes.

1. Bibliographies on Food Aid

Elizabeth Henderson,Food Aid: A Selective Annotated Bibliography on
Food Utilization for Economic Development, UN/FAO, Rome, 1964,
203 pp.
Hartmut Schneider, The Effects of Food Aid on Agricultural Production
in Recipient Countries: An annotated selective bibliography, OECD,
Paris, 1975,41 pp.

2. Food Aid in General

Sophie Bessis, "Le Sahel peut se passer de l'aide alimentaire", Le Monde,
France, 9 November 1980.
John Cathie, The Political Economy of Food Aid, Gower, Aldershot,
1982, 190 pp.
Edward J. Clay, Food Aid and the Economic Development of Bangla-
desh, Discussion Paper 147, Institute of Development Studies, Univer-
sity of Sussex, Brighton, December 1979, 33 pp.
Jonathan Fryer, Food for Thought: The Use and Abuse of Food Aid in
the Fight against World Hunger, World Council of Churches, Geneva,
1981,54 pp.
"Food Aid", The Economist, 12 May 1979, pp. 100-101.
Paul J. Isenman and H. W. Singer, Food Aid: Disincentive Effects and
Their Policy Implications, IDS Communications 116, University of Sussex,
Brighton, 1975, 19 pp.
David B. Jones and Peter Tullock, "Is Food Aid Good Aid?" ODI Review,
No. 2, 1974, pp. 1-6.
S. J. Maxwell and H. W. Singer, "Food Aid to Developing Countries: A
Survey", World Development, Vol. 7, pp. 225-247, 1979.
Hal Mettrick, Food Aid and Britain, Overseas Development Institute,
1980, London,1969,124 pp.
Alex Rondos, "Problems that food aid creates", West Africa, 16 June
1980, pp. 1053-1055.
Hartmut Schneider, Food Aid for Development, OECD, Paris, 1978,
130 pp.
Jack Shepherd, The Politics of Starvation, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, Washington DC, 1975, 101 pp.
Christopher Stevens, "Food Aid: More Sinned against than Sinning?"
ODI Review, No. 2, 1977, pp. 71-85.
Christopher Stevens, Food Aid and the Developing World, Croom Helm/
Overseas Development Institute, London 1979, 224 pp.
J. R. Tarrant, "The Geography of Food Aid", Transactions, Institute of
British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1980, pp. 125-140.

127
 Peter Taylor, "The Politics of Hunger: Cheap food is the major defence
against political unrest", The Listener, London, 5 February 1981, p. 164.
Mitchel B. Wallerstein, Food for War - Food for Peace, United States
Food Aid in a Global Context, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1980, 312 pp.

3. Project Food Aid

Cato Aall, "Disastrous International Relief Failure: A Report on Burmese
Refugees in Bangladesh from May to December 1978", Disasters, Vol. 3,
No. 4, 1979, pp. 429-434.
Mary Ann Anderson, CARE Preschool Nutrition Project: Phase IIReport,
CARE, New York, 1977, 169 pp.
Sally Baker-Carr & Lyn Dobrin, "Guatemala Double Disaster: Earth-
quake and Food Aid", Food Monitor, November/December 1978, pp. 4-5."
In the same issue, "On the Receiving End: An Interview" by Robert
Gersony and Tony Jackson.
Sumanta Banerjee, "Food Aid: Charity or Profitable Business?" Economic
and Political Weekly, India, 7 February 1981, pp. 176-178.
G. H. Beaton and H. Ghassemi, "Supplementary Feeding Programmes
for Young Children in Developing Countries" Report prepared for UNICEF
and the ACC Sub-committee on Nutrition of the United Nations, October
1979,88 pp.
John Best, "Food Aid: For peace or patronage?" Reading Rural Develop-
ment Communications Bulletin 10, University of Reading Agricultural
Extension and Rural Development Centre, July 1980, pp. 6-12.
Siegfried Bethke, "Food Aid A Negative Factor?" AussenPolitik (German
Foreign Affairs Review), 2nd Quarter, 1980, pp. 180-195.
Siegfried Bethke, "Food Aid - A Negative Factor?" Aussen Politik
(German Foreign Affairs Review), 2nd Quarter, 1980, pp. 180-195.
No. 3, 1980, pp. 324-339.
Robin J. Biellik and Peggy L. Henderson, "Mortality, Nutritional Status
and Dietary Conditions in a Food Deficit Region: North Teso District,
Uganda, December 1980", Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Vol. II, No. 3,
1981, pp. 163-170.
Hjalmar Brundin, "Preliminary Report: FFW Secondary Effect Methodo-
logy Study", USAID/Dacca (mimeo), 4 May 1979, 52 pp.
Hjalmar Brundin, "Food for Work in Bangladesh Recommendations for
Improved Program Effectiveness," USAID/Dacca (mimeo), 31 July 1979,
27 pp. plus Appendix.
Roland Bunch, Mary McKay & Paul McKay, "Problems With Food
Distribution Programs: A Case in Point", World Neighbors, Oklahoma,
1978,2 pp.
C. Capone, "A Review of an Experience with Food-Aided Nutrition
Programs", Nutrition Planning, May 1980, pp. xxi-xxv.
Prabhu Chawla, "Food for Work: Money Down the Grain", India Today,
16-31 May 1981, pp. 122-3.
Community Systems Foundation, An Evaluation Report of the PL 480
Title II Program in India, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4 June 1979, 123 pp.

128
Comptroller General of the United States, Changes Needed in the Adminis-
tration of the Overseas Food Donation Program, Report to the Congress,
General Accounting Office, Washington DC, 15 October 1979, 91 pp.
John Osgood Field, "Development at the Grassroots: The Organizational
Imperative", The Fletcher Forum, Summer 1980, pp. 145-164.
"Food Aid: The Case of Haiti", three articles in Food Monitor, May/June
1979, pp. 8-11: Tony Jackson, "Food Aid Versus the Peasant Farmer",
"Report on a Food-for-Work Project" by a development worker, and
"Development or Dependency?" by Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, Director
of Caritas, Diocese of Hinche.
Food for Peace: An Evaluation of PL 480 Title II, Vol. 1, "A Global
Assessment of the Programme", Checchi & Company, Washington DC,
July 1972, pp. 201, plus Appendices.
Davidson R. Gwatkin et al., Can Health and Nutrition Interventions Make
a Difference! Monograph No. 13, Overseas Development Council,
Washington DC, 1980, 76 pp.
Geoffrey Lean, "Scandal of UN's food aid in Africa", The Observer,
17 June 1979.
John Madeley, "Tunisian olives: development or dependence?", Earthscan,
London, 5 August 1980.
Otto Matzke, "Shortcomings of Food Aid: practical experience of the
World Food Programme", a translation of "Schwachstellen der Nahrungs-
mittelhilfe", Neue Zurcher Zeitung, 28 December 1978.
Simon Maxwell, Food Aid, Food for Work and Public Works, Discussion
Paper 127, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton,
March 1978,47 pp.
Simon Maxwell, "Food aid for supplementary feeding programmes: An
analysis", Food Policy, November 1978, pp. 289-298.
Caroline Moorehead, "Experts question benefits of food aid"; "Disaster
relief often inappropriate and ineffective"; "Subsidised food can be best
way to combat famine", The Times, 28, 29 & 30 April 1981.
Barry Newman, "World Hunger - Graft and Inefficiency in Bangladesh
Subvert Food-for-Work Plans", The Wall Street Journal, 20 April 1981.
Peasant Perceptions: Famine, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
(BRAC), Dacca, Bangladesh, July 1979, 28 pp.
Alan Riding, "U.S. Food Aid Seen Hurting Guatemala", The New York
Times, 6 November 1977.
Peter Stalker, "Food Confusion", New Internationalist, December 1979,
pp. 22-24.
Richard L. Shortlidge, Jr., "Assessment of the Educational and Health
Impacts of the Mid Day Meal Program", USAID, New Delhi, 21 July 1980,
33 pp.
Maria A. Tagle, "Operational Conflicts of Food Aid at the Recipient
Level: Those Who Know Don't Plan and Those Who Plan Don't Know",
Food and Nutrition Bulletin, the United Nations University, Tokyo,
July 1980, pp. 5-15.
John Taylor et al., "The Fight Over Food Aid", Newsweek, 27 April
1981, pp. 38-39.

129
 Tony Visocchi, "The follies of food aid", The Tablet, London, 7 June
1980, pp. 548-9.
Mark Winiarski, three articles under the general title "CRS: Image vs
Reality"; "Morale, funding woes hit Catholic Relief"; "Staff lament
bosses' 'errors in judgment' "; "Government pays CRS overhead", National
Catholic Reporter, Kansas City, 28 September, 5 and 12 October 1979.
The National Catholic Reporter of 5 October also carries an editorial
entitled "The $300 million dump truck".

4. Food Aid from the EEC

Communication from the Commission to the Council concerning Food
Aid Programmes for 1981, Commission of the European Communities,
COM (81) 41 Final, Brussels, 11 February 1981, 78 pp. (A document
produced yearly with details of the proposed EEC food aid programme).
European Communities, Court of Auditors, Special Report on Community
Food Aid, 30 October 1980, 148 pp.
Annex to the report of Mr Ferrero on the European Community's contribu-
tion to the campaign against hunger in the world, European Parliament
Working Documents 1980-1981, 5 September 1980, Document 1-341/80/
Annex 1, 209 pp. The working document, "An effective food aid policy
that takes into account the needs of hunger-striken countries and peoples
- emergency aid", drawn up by Mrs K. Focke (pp. 55-90) is of special
interest.
ISMOG, University of Amsterdam, Etude de I'Aide Alimentaire des
Communautes Europe'enes, Amsterdam, 1977.
Andries Klaasse Bos, "Food aid by the European Communities: Policy
and Practice", ODIReview, No. 1, 1978, pp. 38-52.

5. US Food Aid, with Particular Reference to Titles I and III

Official Documents
Facts and figures on US food aid are to be found in the annual Food for
Peace reports on Public Law 480, published by the U.S. Government
Printing Office. Information on the legislation of US food aid may be
found in:
Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1964 and
Amendments, Gilman G. Udell, Superintendent, Document Room,
House of Representatives, 1976, 66 pp.
American Foreign Food Assistance - Public Law 480 and Related
Materials, Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, United States
Senate, 13 August 1976, 43 pp.
Food for Peace, 1954-1978 - Major Changes in Legislation, Congres-
sional Research Service, the Library of Congress, 26 April 1979, 59 pp.
Official analyses on US food aid are produced periodically by the General
Accounting Office (GAO), Washington DC. Among them are:
Comptroller General of the United States, Disincentives to Agricultural
Production in Developing Countries, Report to the Congress, GAO,
26 November 1975, 117 pp.
Comptroller General of the United States, Impact of U.S. Development

130
 and Food Aid in Selected Developing Countries, GAO, 22 April 1976,
42 pp.
Comptroller General of the United States, Search for Options in the
Troubled Food-for-Peace Program in Zaire, Report to the Subcommittee
on Africa, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, GAO, 22 February
1980,35 pp.
Comptroller General of the United States, Food for Development
Program: Constrained by Unresolved Management and Policy Questions,
Report to the Congress, GAO, 23 June 1981, 55 pp.
Other Material
James E. Austin and Mitchel B. Wallerstein, "Reformulating US Food Aid
Policy for Development", World Development, Vol. 7, 1979, pp. 635-646.
Leonard Dudley and Roger J. Sandilands, "The Side Effects of Foreign
Aid: The Case of Public Law 480 Wheat in Colombia", Economic Develop-
ment and Cultural Change, Jan 1975, pp. 325-336.
Betsy Hartmann and James Boyce, Needless Hunger: Voices from a
Bangladesh Village, Institute for Food and Development Policy, San
Francisco, 1979, 72 pp.
Donald F. McHenry and Kai Bird, "Food Bungle in Bangladesh", Foreign
Policy, Summer 1977, pp. 72-88.
James Morrell, "The Big Stick: The Use and Abuse of Food Aid", Food
Monitor, December 1977.
Emma Rothschild, "Is it time to end Food for Peace?" The New York
Times Magazine, 13 March 1977, pp. 43-48.
Theodore W. Schultz, "Value of U.S. Farm Surpluses to Underdeveloped
Countries"', Journal of Farm Economics, Dec 1960, pp. 1019-1030.

6. Dairy Aid
The EEC is by far the largest donor of dairy aid, both as skimmed milk
powder and butteroil, much of it distributed through the WFP. "Operation
Flood" in India is often quoted as a model for the use of milk powder
but is not dealt with in this report as the milk powder is not used as
project food aid. The following documents look at dairy aid, some at
"Operation Flood" in particular. For reference to books discussing the
use of milk powder in general in the Third World, see footnote 58 to
Chapter 4.
John Clark, "Dairy aid: from Europe with love?", Earthscan, London,
29 August 1980,6 pp.
John Clark, Milking Whom? A Study of Europe's Leading Agricultural
Sector, and Its Effects on European and Third World Food Systems,
International Coalition for Development Action, London 1979, 71 pp.
John Clark, "Concern About EEC Dairy Aid", OXFAM, Oxford, 1980,
7 pp. plus Appendices (mimeo).
Raymond Crotty, "How Europe's milk is becoming India's poison", The
Times, 6 May 1977.
Raymond Crotty, Cattle, Economics and Development, Commonwealth
Agricultural Bureaux, Slough, England, 1980, 253 pp.
Bharat Dogra, The Milk Muddle: Are national interests in dairying being

131
 sabotaged? C-l/51 Janakpuri, New Delhi, 110058, April 1980, 48 pp.
Bernard Kervyn, From Dairy Aid to Milk Powder Business: The Dairy
Sector in Bangladesh, Community Development Library, GPO Box 235,
Dacca 2, 1981, 50 pp.
Handle with Care: Skim Milk Aid to Developing Countries, The North-
South Institute, Ottawa, 1979, 80 pp.
John Torode, "Operation Flood", WFP News, Oct-Dec 81, pp. 2-4, (first
of a series).
WFP/CFA: 12/7 Add. C6, Summary Terminal Evaluation Report, India
618: "Milk marketing and dairy development, Operation Flood 1",
September 1981, 30 pp.
The National Dairy Development Board ("Operation Flood") publishes
an Annual Report, available from P.O. Box 40, Anand 388011, India.

7. Radio and Television Coverage of Food Aid

"The Politics of Hunger", BBC TV, Panorama, 2 February 1981, produced
by Jonathan Holmes, looks at food aid in Mali.
"Food Aid: What's in it for U.S.?" PBS TV, 21 October 1981, produced
by William Cran and Stephanie Tepper, (WORLD/WGBH TV, Boston).
"The Food Aid Fraud", BBC radio File on 4, 20 August 1980, produced
by Gerry Northam, reports on food aid to Bangladesh.
(Films, tape and transcripts available from relevant office).

132