London, 22 June 2008 - Deliveries of food aid around the world have sunk to their lowest level in nearly 50 years, because of rising prices of food, says the latest report from the International Food Aid Information System (Interfais). Deliveries fell by 15% in 2007 from the previous year, dropping to 5.9 million tonnes—the lowest amount since records began in 1961. The report says that from 2000 to 2007 the price of wheat rose by 122% and that of maize by 86%, meaning that only “smaller amounts of these food commodities could be purchased within fixed budgets.”

The World Food Programme of the United Nations has drawn up a new strategic plan to respond to the crisis. The plan will rely on buying the bulk of goods and services in developing nations rather than recycling the now vanishing surpluses from rich countries. The plan was decided after this month’s high level conference on world food security in Rome, where world leaders gathered to discuss issues concerning hunger and agricultural development against a backdrop of high food and fuel prices worldwide.

“Recent market shocks and climate change make the challenges of feeding some 90 million people even greater,” warned the programme. “The new face of hunger requires market information and interventions that support local economies.”

The new strategic plan “marks a revolution in food aid that supports local markets in breaking the cycle of hunger,” said Josette Sheeran, the programme’s executive director. “I call this our 80-80-80 solution,” she said. “Eighty per cent of our cash for food is spent in the developing world, 80% of our ground transport is procured in the developing world, and 80% of our staff is hired locally in the developing world.”

The programme currently spends more than $2bn (£1bn; €1.3bn) on food, transport, and staff in the developing world and currently buys about a third of its food supplies from developing countries. This amount is likely to increase substantially if the plan is fully funded. However, humanitarian agencies are concerned that donors are failing to compensate for the rising costs of delivering aid. The programme last week had to scale down aid flights to Darfur—despite the fact that banditry and the onset of the rains currently make road transportation very difficult—because its Humanitarian Air Service had only 17% of the funding it needed.

“The recent rapid increases in food prices mean untold misery for millions, with despair and anger leading to riots worldwide,” warned the UK aid charity Oxfam. “Aid should be going up, not down. Rich countries give just over half as much of their income as they did in 1962.” Complaining of the current gap between additional aid money pledged by countries and the amount actually delivered, the charity said, “Rich country leaders have produced nearly a trillion dollars to bail out their reckless banks yet cannot find $30bn in aid.

Source: BMJ

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