How to Reform the Outdated Food Aid Convention

The only international treaty governing food aid, the Food Aid Convention (FAC) needs urgent reform. Signatories agreed a decade ago that "food aid should only be provided when it is the most effective and appropriate form of assistance" and "should be based on an evaluation of needs by the recipient and the members" (Art. VIII). These goals have not been realized. The convention remains rooted in an outdated surplus disposal paradigm and favors responses that neither follow from careful evaluation of recipients' needs nor reflect recent innovations in food assistance. In the context of fast rising food prices and increasing needs for food assistance, policymakers have a responsibility to modernize the convention to support better emergency relief and recovery and to advance longer term food security goals. This brief is a result of the Uniting on Food Assistance project conducted jointly by GPPi and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University.