Food aid flows 2007

The 2008 edition of the annual Food Aid Flows report provides a comprehensive view of trends in global food aid, which include food aid deliveries by Governments, non-governmental organisations and the World Food Programme. It shows that food aid deliveries continued to decline in 2007, reaching the lowest level since 1961. The report argues that there is an urgent need to reverse this trend. In particular, increased resources for food assistance are urgently needed to address the serious negative effects of the higher food prices on hunger and malnutrition across the world.

The report provides data of food aid flows in 2007 by category, mode, channel, sale recipient, region and donor. Key trends identified in 2007 include:

• food aid deliveries reached a record low in 2007, with all three categories of food aid – emergency, project and programme - declining
• the share of food aid that was channelled multilaterally continued to increase and reached 55 percent, the highest share ever
• the share of food aid commodities procured in developing countries increased
• there was a decline in direct transfers of wheat and maize, which can be partly explained by higher wheat and maize prices
• 24 of the main government donors (out of 31) reduced their food aid donations in 2007
• all regions faced a decline in food aid deliveries in 2007, except Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa remained the largest recipient of food aid.
  

Based on these findings, the report emphasises the need for increased food assistance, particularly in the context of recent food price rises. Given that food prices are expected to remain high during the next decade, it argues that without additional interventions higher food prices could jeopardise the prospects for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals and the fight against hunger and malnutrition.

The report recommends actions on several fronts by a variety of actors, including the WFP. It highlights the urgency of implementing changes proposed in the WFP's draft Strategic Plan for the period 2008-2011, which it is argued mark a historic shift from WFP as a food aid agency to WFP as a food assistance agency. This new plan aims to provide WFP with a more nuanced and robust and broader set of food assistance tools and includes a new strategic objective to reduce chronic hunger and malnutrition.