On The Choice and Impacts of Innovative International Food Assistance Instruments

Country logistics performance and disaster impact

“…Indeed, since the procurement process is important for lead times (Maon et al, 2009), organisations will often have warehouses in areas close to the main port of entries either for pre-positioned goods procured locally (Coulter, 2007) or procured globally, and can also set up temporary warehouses for materials arriving during emergencies (Bukhari et al, 2010). The type of items required in the emergency might also influence the use of the trading gateways, with high value items or high quality items such as medical goods or pre-assembled kits being procured globally (Berger and Garyfalakis, 2013) while lower quality goods such as food aid might be procured locally or even substituted for direct cash payments (Lentz et al, 2013). The length and intensity of the disaster might also deplete local stocks and force the importation through main trading (air)ports of different types of goods.…”

Food commodity pipeline management in transitional settings: challenges and lessons learned from the first USAID food development program in South Sudan

“…By the beginning of 2012, the situation had so deteriorated that it was designated a crisis (Integrated Phase Classification 3), with the potential for further deterioration to a humanitarian emergency 13 . The difficulty of making accurate long-term security predictions in many transition settings requires innovative strategies, such as the adaptation of voucher, cash transfer, and insurance schemes increasingly used in emergency settings 18 - 19 and greater donor flexibility for advance financing or use of prepositioned commodities 20 …”

Food riots and the politics of provisions from early modern Europe and China to the food crisis of 2008

“…The UN's main food aid agency, the WFP, was able to raise nearly twice as much money in 2008 as in 2007 (WFP 2009). The 'radical remaking of international food assistance' (Lentz et al 2013, 2) already in progress was also hastened by the food riots that endowed hungry people with assertive agency to challenge the status quo. 22 The established practice of 'tied food aid' had been to pour (often subsidized) grain grown in Western donor countries into recipients' economies at prices below the cost of production, greatly damaging their farmers.…”

“…As high prices persisted, and public protest mounted, many governments were confronted with 'moments of truth', the cumulative result of which was to question some of the assumptions that had driven food and agriculture policy over the past few decades. 22 Lentz et al (2013), Introduction to a Special Section of World Development on food aid and food assistance, provides a fine and succinct overview. Comprehensive studies are Clapp (2012) and Barrett, Binder, and Steets (2012).…”