Food Aid in Response
to Acute Food Insecurity

 
Christopher B. Barrett
ESA Working Paper No. 06-10
September 2006

Agricultural and Development
Economics Division
The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations
www.fao.org/es/esa
 
 
 

Download the Document: PDF (119 KB)

 
 

Abstract

This paper reviews the role of food aid in response to humanitarian emergencies. It outlines a set of basic principles for effective food aid interventions, and analyses a number of case studies in humanitarian response. The paper distinguishes between rapid onset and slow onset emergencies and between ¡®idiosyncratic¡¯ emergencies affecting individuals or households and ¡®covariate¡¯ emergencies affecting entire communities or countries. The lead-time afforded by slow-onset emergencies could be ¨C but usually is not ¨C used to mount early interventions aimed at averting full-scale disasters. Emergency response is too heavily dominated by food aid, especially aid sourced in donor countries, to the neglect of more effective and less costly interventions. What¡¯s more, idiosyncratic shocks are usually overlooked in humanitarian response. The paper draws a number of ¡®lessons learned¡¯ from recent experience with different types of humanitarian emergencies. It argues that emergency food aid is often a necessary part of humanitarian response to acute food insecurity, but it is rarely sufficient.

© FAO 2006