Reducing Hunger: Putting food aid into broader contexts
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Development. Copyright © 2001 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200112) 44:4; 57–60; 020160.
Local/Global Encounters
Reducing Hunger: Putting food aid into broader contexts STUART J. CLARK AND C. STUART TAY L O R
ABSTRACT Stuart J. Clark and C. Stuart Taylor present the experience of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and its partners in developing a food security framework for food aid that includes nutritional, economic, social and political dimensions. This understanding of food aid goes beyond a purely nutritional framework, is more development-focused, and demonstrates ways in which food aid may contribute to sustainable reductions in hunger. KEYWORDS Canadian Foodgrains Bank; community empowerment; food justice; nutrition; peace building; political change
The role of food aid in the fight against hunger The World Food Summit goal of halving the prevalence of undernourishment (understood as insufficient access to food) by the year 2015 depends on sustainable reductions in hunger. This implies a strong emphasis on hunger prevention (dealing with root causes) rather than the simple treatment of acute cases. With this in mind, what is the role of food aid in achieving the World Food Summit goal? Over the past three years, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank – a partnership of 13 Canadian church-based agencies that provide food aid as one component of their respective partner-based overseas relief and development programmes – has examined its own food aid programme in order to understand the role of food aid in addressing the underlying determinants of food insecurity, in addition to the immediate alleviation of hunger. In 1999, the Foodgrains Bank held focus groups with staff members from each of its Canadian member agencies. The focus groups were asked to describe the roles of food aid in their own relief and development programmes. The discussion was stimulated by a series of potential models for the role of food, based on existing project reports, the experience of Foodgrains Bank staff, and the
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Development 44(4): Local/Global Encounters literature. Focus group participants were asked to rank the models and to suggest additional models that reflected their own experiences. In addition to the focus groups with Canadian member agencies, the Foodgrains Bank also interviewed staff members from selected local partner organizations supported through the programme. Four key roles of food aid emerged from analysis of the focus group discussions: • maintain or improve health and nutrition; • protect or build economic livelihoods; • support community action and empowerment; and • facilitate peace building and political change. These roles – especially the less conventional ones related to community empowerment and political change – bear some brief explanation. Community action and empowerment
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The successes and failures of food aid in maintaining and improving nutritional
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