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Social Protection_11 07 08.doc

World food prices have risen rapidly over the last year due to a combination of factors, including: reduced cereal harvests in major exporting countries in 2005 and 2006; rapid rises in petroleum prices, resulting in augmented fertilizer and shipping costs; an increasing demand for and use of cereals to supply biofuel production; economic growth in China, Brazil and India coupled with growing global urbanization resulting in dietary changes, notably increased demand for cereals and feedstock for meat production; trade distorting policies such as subsidies (shifting final use of maize towards b

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Is cash a feasible alternative to food aid for post-drought relief in Lesotho

This report summarises the findings from a study undertaken to assess whether or not a cash based
response by World Vision to the current drought in Lesotho would be appropriate and feasible, as part of the organisation’s overall relief response.

This was motivated both by a desire to respond with the most appropriate and effective resources in Lesotho and to increase the capacity within World Vision more globally to use cash based responses as one of a range of options for response in humanitarian crises.

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Reconsidering Food Aid: The Dialogue Continues

Since World War I, the United States has delivered food aid around the world to hundreds of millions of people impoverished or uprooted by natural disaster, wars and civil conflict. These supplies have saved lives and helped countless families to survive and recover from crisis.

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The effects of Food Aid on Household Migration Patterns and Implications for Emergency Food Assessment

Many of the people that the World Food Programme (WFP) assists in its emergency programmes have migrated as a result of a natural or human-made disaster. Often, the objectives of food aid programmes have been framed around the objective of preventing distress migration or responding to the food aid needs of populations that have already been displaced. It is also increasingly being recognised that migration already plays an important role in the normal livelihoods of people, as well as during crisis.

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Emergency Needs Assessments and the Impact of Food Aid on Local Markets

When emergencies occur and governments request the assistance of the World Food Programme (WFP) or other humanitarian agencies,1 the agency involved conducts a needs assessment to evaluate how best to respond to meet the goals of saving lives, improving nutrition and quality of life of vulnerable populations, and helping to retain or build assets and promote self-reliance. There is a recognized tension between achieving the objectives, since immediate efforts to save lives with food deliveries, if not well designed, may undermine the longer term objectives.

The conference debated the question "Should cash based responses be used more widely?" before dividing into smaller groups to debate other questions. This opening plenary session was intended to examine some of the larger questions around the role of cash in relief and provide the setting for the rest of the debates.

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Separating the wheat from the chaff, Briefing Paper #71

Food aid has emerged as a controversial topic in trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Members of the US Congress have made impassioned calls to ‘save food aid’, claiming it is under attack at the WTO, while representatives of other countries assert that US food aid is often used to disguise export subsidies and should be restricted in some cases.