6.4.5.     Food aid and food security

LEGAL BASIS

Article 179 (ex Article 130w) of the EC Treaty.

OBJECTIVES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Food aid was initially managed according to the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy in order to dispose of surpluses. Over the years food aid policy has gradually been reformed, delinking it from the Common Agricultural Policy and integrating it more firmly into the Union's development policy in response to concerns about food security.

2. Council Regulation 1292/96 of 27 June 1996 on food-aid policy, food-aid management and special operations in support of food security laid down the following principles:

• food aid is an important feature of the Community's development cooperation policy;
• food aid must be integrated into the developing countries' policies for the improvement of their food security, in particular by the establishment of food strategies aimed at alleviating poverty and geared to achieving the ultimate goal of making food aid superfluous;
• food aid and operations in support of food security must be taken into account as objectives in all community policies likely to affect developing countries, in particular from the point of view of economic reforms and structural adjustment;
• food aid should avoid having adverse effects on local production, distribution, transport and marketing capacities;
• food security should help the populations of developing countries and regions at household, local, national and regional levels to improve their own food production;
• early-warning systems concerning the food situation can be supported by the Community, along with food storage programmes to strengthen the food security in recipient countries.

Food aid operations of a humanitarian nature are carried out in the framework of the rules on humanitarian aid policy (* 6.4.4).

3. The Food Aid Convention of 13 April 1999

This has replaced the 1995 Convention.

a.     Objectives

The Convention wants to contribute to world food security and to improve the ability of the international community to respond to emergency food situations and other food needs of developing countries by:

• making appropriate levels of food aid available on a predictable basis;
• encouraging member countries to ensure that the food aid provided is aimed particularly at the alleviation of poverty and hunger of the most vulnerable groups and is consistent with agricultural development in those countries;
• including principles for maximising the impact, the effectiveness and quality of the food aid provided as a tool in support of food security;
• providing a framework for co-operation, co-ordination and information-sharing among members and food aid related matters to achieve greater efficiency in all aspects of food aid operations and better coherence between food aid and other policy instruments.

Food aid under the Convention may be provided to:

• least developed countries;
• low-income countries;
• lower middle-income countries and other countries included in the WTO list of net food-importing developing countries, when experiencing food emergencies or when food aid is targeted at vulnerable groups.

b.     Means and methods

Under the Convention (article 3) the EU and its Member States have a global annual commitment of 1.320.000 tonnes of wheat equivalent.

EU operations in support of food security consist of either supplying food products or financing development projects relating to food security.

Among the products to be supplied as food aid the largest category is cereals. Cereals are staple products for coping with a range of famines and structural food shortages. Wheat and white maize are the main cereals allocated to Africa. Rice is consumed largely in Asia but also in many other developing countries. Pulses, in particular beans, are rich in protein and often particularly suited to the diets of the recipient groups. These products were formerly included under "other products", a category which is not accounted for in tonnes, but by value, since it covers a wide variety of products such as groundnut oil, dried fish, meat, tinned foods, tomato puree, fruit and seeds. Other categories are vegetable oil, sugar, milk powder, and butteroil. Vegetable oil adds fat to the diet while sugar is useful as an energy booster in food supplement programmes for severely undernourished groups of refugees and displaced persons.

In addition to food products, seeds, fertilisers, tools and other agricultural inputs may also be supplied as part of farm rehabilitation programmes aimed at improving the recipients' food security.

Financial allocations intended to help the countries improve their food security may be used to finance storage programmes or early warning systems, public information and education programmes, the purchase of tools and inputs, farm rehabilitation projects and marketing.

Triangular food aid operations, where food is purchased in a developing country and delivered to another, has diminished considerably over the last four years, due to emphasis being given to food security policies.

4. Level and destination of aid

The appropriations available in the 1999 budget for food aid and food security operations in developing countries amounted to 504.97 million Euros, of which 207.89 million for food aid and 190.28 million for food security measures. The foreign currency facility, used to make food products available through the private sector, amounted to 106.80 million.

Cereals amounted to 68.36 million Euros, vegetable oil to 16.77 million, sugar to 5.37 million, milk powder to 4.49 million and pulses to 3.22 million. A total of 16.73 million Euros was used for the purchase of other products, and 92.95 million for transport.

In 1999, 55% (258.55 million Euros) of the total aid budget was direct aid implemented by the Commission. Direct food aid was delivered to Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, China, Ethiopia, Georgia, Haiti, Jordan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, North Korea, Peru, Rwanda, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe; Ethiopia, North Korea and Malawi being the countries which have received the most.

Indirect aid implemented through international organisations and NGOs represented 45% of the EU budget (214.64 million Euros).

In 1999, in terms of geographical distribution of food aid and of support actions for food security, ACP countries accounted for 49.22%, Asia for 17.61%, Latin America for 12.08%. NIS countries (Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Tadjikistan, Uzbeckistan, Moldovia, Kazakstan, Belarus and Armenia) for 10.80% and non EU Europe for 5.83%. and Mediterranean countries, for 4%.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

In its resolution of 21 May 1996, the EP insisted on:

• coordination of development cooperation policies in relation to food aid and food security programmes of Member States;
• the different roles of women and men when it comes to preparing food security programmes;
• regional approaches to food security should be supported to take advantage of natural complementarity of countries in the same region;
• wherever possible, preference should be given to local purchases.

In resolutions on specific countries, such as North Korea, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan and Angola, the EP dealt with the food security situation in the countries concerned.

18/10/2000