Food aid and governance

Arguing that food security management belongs to the core of government tasks and has been since Biblical times, we assess current practices in this domain and their effect on local governance, with special reference to the food aid operations of the World Food Program. Within the food security management task, we distinguish three basic elements: (i) entitlement: to provide income entitlements that enable the needy to acquire sufficient food, (ii) delivery: to ensure that the food physically gets within the reach of the needy, and (iii) taxation: to secure funding that covers the full cost of the operations. Our review of literature suggests that the taxation aspect is often neglected, and that little attention is paid to the weakening of respect for local authorities that inevitably results when they remain dependent on foreigners in fulfilling core security tasks, financially and otherwise, let alone when they no longer play any role in this sphere. Next, we present a theoretical framework that coherently deals with the three elements, and discuss its application through a spatially explicit model of optimal food aid provision for Sub Saharan Africa that is being developed within an ongoing joint research project between WFP and SOW-VU. Our main message is that foreign donors, when called upon to intervene during food crises, should always program for a post-emergency exit strategy that leaves behind local authorities with sufficient authority and means for food security management.