U.S. Food Aid and Sustainable Development: Forty Years of Experience. USAID Evaluation Highlights, No. 63

摘要

Under Public Law 480 the United States has contributed substantial food aid to developing countries for more than 40 years. This food aid has two primary objectives: to alleviate hunger (in the short term) and to promote sustainable development (in the long term). During 1996 and 1997, USAIDs Center for Development Information and Evaluation examined the role of U.S. food aid in contributing to sustainable development. CDIE conducted fieldwork in five countries proper and a desk study of the nine countries in the Sahel region of Africa. The case studies show that in addition to improving a countrys balance-of-payments situation, program food aid can leverage or support a sound economic policy environment and thus promote sustainable development. However, food aid can also be a crutch that lets a country put off making important decisions on food policy. The study also finds that food aid has had beneficial social effects. Food-for-work programs, for example, automatically target the poor, since the betteroff spurn working for rations. At the same time, no welfare stigma attaches to participants in food for work. As for maternal and child health programs, the evaluation found that participating mothers learned better health and feeding practices.