Aid for food security: does it work?

Abstract

Purpose The paper's objective is to contribute to existing literature by examining whether development aid has any measurable impact on food security, whether the impact is conditioned on the quality of governance, and whether it differs based on the type of aid provided. Methodology Panel-data analysis of 85 developing countries between 1994 and 2011, employing GMM and 2SLS estimators. Findings The paper finds that aid in general has a small positive impact on food security; that multilateral aid, grants, and social and economic aid have a positive effect on food security in their own right; and that bilateral aid, loans, and agricultural aid are more conditioned on the quality of governance that other aid. Research Limitations The main limitations rest with the imperfect nature of crosscountry data on food security and governance, which I have tried to overcome through a series of robustness tests. Practical Implications The findings suggest that aid, despite its many deficiencies, can play a positive role in strengthening food security. Furthermore, they indicate that concessional loans, bilateral aid, and agricultural aid are likely to foster food security only in countries with better governance. Originality/Value The paper constitutes a novel contribution to existing literature because it is one of the first to use crosscountry data to explore the impact of aid on food security and because it utilizes a relatively complex aid categorization, which allows its conclusions to be more nuanced.

The combined effect of institutional quality and capital flows on food and nutrition security and undernourishment in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Furthermore, most studies focus only on the policies of government targeted directly or indirectly at improving food and nutrition security. Some notable studies similar to our study have, however, looked at the joint effects of governance quality and capital flows on food and nutrition security in a developing country context [ 21 , 22 , 33 , 34 ]. Yet, some results lack internal validity due to the type of empirical strategy employed which failed to account for endogeneity in the overall relationship [ 35 ].…”

“…However, the interaction between foreign aid and governance results to a negative effect on food security, suggesting that foreign aid may improve food security only in countries with good governance quality. Similarly, Petrikova [ 34 ] extended coverage beyond SSA and examined whether the impact of development aid on food security and nutrition is conditioned on the quality of governance and on the type of aid flows. By using GMM and two-stage least squares estimators and panel data for 85 developing countries, the author finds that foreign aid has a small positive impact on food security.…”

Development Aid, Drought, and Coping Capacity

“…Other studies offer more sobering conclusions. For example, Petrikova (2015) reports that agricultural aid is more context sensitive than multilateral and economic aid projects and only likely to improve food security in countries with well-functioning governance systems. A meta-analysis of 23 studies of local agricultural interventions failed to uncover a positive effect on child nutritional status 'with any level of confidence', although many of the assessed interventions were at a more local scale than conventional aid projects (Masset, Haddad, Cornelius, & Isaza-Castro, 2012, p. 1).…”

Promoting ‘good behaviour’ through aid: do ‘new’ donors differ from the ‘old’ ones?

“…Moreover, aid has been shown to be more effective at achieving its goals in countries with better governance, human rights, and democracy records (e.g. Burnside and Dollar 2000;Jenkins and Scanlan 2001;Kosack 2003;Petrikova 2015). Due to the difficulty in measuring the integration of human rights, democracy and good governance into aid programming via other means, aid conditioning is the policy approach examined in this paper, as an approximation of donors' regard for recipients' good behaviour iii .…”