The UN World Food Programme and the Development of Food Aid Also by D

Home , Food for Peace, James Ingram (diplomat), World Food Programme

The UN World Food Programme and the Development of Food Aid Also by D. John Shaw

FOOD AID AND THE WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD (co-edited with J. P. Greaves) FOOD POLICY, FOOD AID AND ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT (co-edited with H. W. Singer) POVERTY, DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD: Essays in Honour of H. W. Singer on his 75th Birthday (co-edited with Edward Clay) THE QUEST FOR FOOD SECURITY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (co-edited with Hélène Delisle) WORLD FOOD AID AND EXPERIENCES OF RECIPIENTS AND DONORS (co-edited with Edward Clay) The UN World Food Programme and the Development of Food Aid D. John Shaw

Foreword by Sir Hans Singer © D. John Shaw 2001 Foreword © H. W. Singer 2001 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).

ISBN 978-0-333-67669-1 ISBN 978-1-4039-0543-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403905437 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shaw, D. John. The UN World Food Programme and the development of food aid / D. John Shaw. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. World Food Programme—History. 2. Food relief– –International cooperation—History. I. Title. HV696.F6 S53 2000 363.8'56—dc21 00–053046

10987654321 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 To my wife, Ileana, my rock and my strength, and to my son and daughter, David and Elizabeth, for their understanding and support This page intentionally left blank Contents

List of Figures and Tables viii

Foreword by Professor Sir Hans Singer ix Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv Key Events xix Notes on the Text xxv List of Abbreviations xxvii

1 Introduction 1

2 The Birth of WFP: One Man’s Inspiration 6

3 Antecedents: A Tale of Three Cities 19

4 The Experimental Years: 1963–5 37

5 Food for Development 67

6 Emergency and Relief Operations 145

7 Managing Food Aid Resources 188

8 Constitutional Change: The Byzantine Vortex 205

9 Reform and Renewal: Future Directions 225

Statistical Appendices 253

Notes 256

Bibliography 266

Dramatis Personae 291

Index 296

vii List of Figures and Tables

Figures

5.1 Share of WFP development commitments by country group, 1976–95 86 5.2 Regional WFP commitments for development projects and relief and emergency operations, 1963–95 87 6.1 WFP commitments for emergency operations by type, 1963–95 157 6.2 WFP commitments for emergency operations by region, 1963–95 159

Tables

5.1 World Food Programme resources, 1963–74 68 5.2 WFP development commitments by region, 1963–95 84 5.3 WFP commitments by category of development project, 1963–95 85 6.1 WFP commitments for emergency operations by type, 1963–95 155 6.2 WFP commitments for protracted refugee and displaced person operations by region, 1989–95 156 6.3 WFP commitments for emergency operations by region, 1963–95 158 7.1 WFP food deliveries by commodity category, 1991–5 190 7.2 Major donors to WFP by type of pledge or contribution for biennium 1995–6, as at 31 December 1995 191

Statistical Appendix Tables

1 Regional WFP cumulative commitments for development projects and relief and emergency operations by category and type approved up to 31 December 1995 253 2 Total WFP commitments and number of development projects and emergency operations by region, 1962–95 255

viii Foreword

The World Food Programme (WFP) occupies a high place among the achievements of the United Nations. As with all aid agencies, inside and outside the UN system, there have been difficulties and failures, but, on balance, WFP is a success story. It has become an acknowledged centre of expertise and experience in the effective delivery and use of food aid for development and in times of emergencies. Nobody is better qualified to write the history of WFP than John Shaw. He was associated with WFP for over thirty years, almost from the start of its operations, in a succession of senior posts. Since his official retirement in 1994, he has continued to give his attention to the role of food aid in general, and to WFP in particular, in food security, economic development and relief efforts for the sufferers of conflicts and disasters. His present book – following upon extensive previous writings on food aid and development and author- ship of many important papers, documents and reports – shows his ency- clopaedic knowledge of the history and operations of WFP. It represents a major contribution to the history of food aid since the Second World War. My own involvement with food aid was closely linked with negotiations in the 1950s concerning the creation of a multilateral soft aid programme in the United Nations, a Special UN Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED). It eventually became clear that the financial soft aid then under discussion would go to the World Bank rather than to the United Nations as the International Development Association (IDA), the soft aid window of the World Bank. But it also became clear by the late 1950s that a multilateral extension of the United States food aid programme (enacted as Public Law 480 in 1954) was acceptable to the republican administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and also formed part of the proposals of the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign that led to the election of President John F. Kennedy. In these favourable political circumstances, a multilateral food aid programme under the auspices of the United Nations that would help to reduce the burdensome and costly US food surpluses of the day became feasible. Given the existence in the UN system of a specialized agency in food and agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it was clear that this particular segment of the original SUNFED proposal would remain in the UN system. Both the UN and FAO, under the vigorous leadership of its director- general B. R. Sen, seized the opportunity and set up a group of experts (of which I became chairman) to give shape to the general idea and provide a set of guidelines. Subsequently, WFP was successfully negotiated and established

ix x Foreword on a three-year experimental basis (1963–5). Later, it developed into one of the major operational organizations of the United Nations system. All this is described in detail in John Shaw’s book. What have been some of the major achievements of WFP? Five contribu- tions may be singled out as specially important. First, by giving it a multilateral dimension, WFP has helped to depoliticize food aid and use it as an instrument for achieving universally recognized objec- tives in both development aid and as relief in conflict and emergency situations. In addition, multilateral procurement and delivery of food aid can be more cost- effective and result in better resource management than unco-ordinated, and often conflictive, bilateral efforts. WFP has acquired considerable expertise and experience in the shipment, delivery, purchase and monitoring of food aid, and has become a major transport and logistics arm of the UN system. Over the years, a supply system has been developed that is appreciated by donors and recipient countries alike. This expertise is at the service of bilateral donors and increasingly used by them, especially in large-scale and complex emergencies. WFP also provides an indispensable source of food aid information through its international database, INTERFAIS, which is at the disposal of decision-makers throughout the world. Second, WFP has helped to establish a policy framework for food aid both for development and in times of emergency. Through its governing body, guidelines and criteria for food aid were developed which, although not always followed, still provide the best available policy framework for food aid globally. As part of its functions, WFP also administers an International Emergency Food Reserve (IEFR), the only international facility available to respond quickly to emergencies whenever and wherever they occur. Although the IEFR has not fully lived up to its original expectations, it now includes an Immediate Response Account (IRA), a cash reserve to purchase food to respond to emergency food needs quickly. Both the IEFR and the IRA are still too small and unpredictable, and their use not fully multilaterally controlled, to ensure that all needs are satisfied, but the framework for effective action is in place, once the political will to expand and use these facilities is there. It is one of the functions of WFP’s governing body to create this political will and give meaning to the much-invoked concepts of ‘international community’ and ‘international solidarity’. Third, WFP has helped to pioneer the project approach to food aid. Originally restricted to supporting development projects (apart from a modest allocation for emergency aid) in order to keep it small and non-competitive with the bulk supply of food aid under the United States food aid programme Public Law 480, WFP has made a virtue out of necessity and pioneered labour-intensive food- for-work programmes and the development of human resources through providing support for nutrition, health, education and training programmes for Foreword xi vulnerable groups of people. This was even before human resources were universally recognized as the key to development, as they are now. Fourth, the role of WFP in emergency aid has expanded greatly from the original small provision and now absorbs the major part of its resources. WFP has emerged as the principal international channel for emergency food aid, and a natural co-ordinator in large-scale and complex emergency food relief operations. This humanitarian function transcends the debate about the development function of food aid. Support for it is the nearest we come to an approach to the concept of a truly ‘international community’. Finally, with its dual functions of providing development and relief assistance, WFP has been well placed to play a major role in what has come to be called the ‘continuum’ between relief and development. From its inception, it has supported disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation activities as well as post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes. And its emergency assistance has been used, to the extent possible, to serve both relief and development works. There is still much to be done to create a link between relief and development. Indeed, food aid can be visualized as a means for preventing conflicts and resolving tensions before they develop into full- scale emergencies. A future task of WFP will be to stimulate the international community to remove the artificial dichotomy between emergency and development assistance in the process from crisis to recovery and development, and to broaden the humanitarian consensus from acute emergency relief to the full circle of prevention and preparedness linked to rehabilitation, reconstruction and development. These and other tasks for the future emerge clearly in John Shaw’s book. It should be read not only by those concerned with the history, but also with the future, of food aid as an essential part of the ultimate goal of achieving global food security. H. W. SINGER This page intentionally left blank Preface

I was in my office at the University of Khartoum in the Sudan one day in March 1963 when three people visited me. One of them spoke: ‘We are from the World Food Programme. We would like you to be a consultant for us.’ This came as a complete surprise to me. I had no idea what the ‘World Food Programme’ was, and I had no advance intimation that I would be approached to act as a consultant for that organization. I invited them into my office and over refreshments learned about the new United Nations organization that had recently begun operations and who my visitors were. One was Sushil Dey, who had invited me to be a consultant to WFP, an Indian who was director of WFP’s Programme Development and Appraisal Division and a leading light in the development of the organization. The others were Marcel Ganzin, a Frenchman who was WFP’s nutrition adviser, and Dr Kool, a Dutchman and economic adviser to WFP. They were visiting Sudan to appraise a government request for WFP assistance to help in the resettlement of people whose homes and land at Wadi Halfa, close to the Sudan/Egyptian frontier, were about to be flooded as a result of the construc- tion of the High Dam in Egypt. They were to be resettled at Khasm el Girba in eastern Sudan, where I had been undertaking research work. I accompanied the three visitors to the resettlement area, which was to become the site of the first WFP-assisted development project (Sudan 001). I was then invited to be consultant to WFP for Africa and the Middle East. A few months later, I received another visitor. This time it was Dr Hans Singer (now Professor Sir Hans Singer), who at the time was UN special adviser to the executive secretary of the recently formed United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He had already played a leading role both at the United Nations in New York and at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome in the creation of WFP. Thus began a glorious friendship that has endured to the present time. Little did I know at the time that these two events were to be the beginning of what proved to be an involvement in food aid and an association with WFP that was to last for over three decades. I subsequently joined the staff at WFP headquarters in Rome, Italy, first as a senior evaluation officer, then as senior economist and head of the Policy Unit in the Office of the Executive Director, later as economic adviser, and, finally, as chief of WFP’s Policy Affairs Service until my retirement in August 1994. Two main reasons have motivated me to write this book, which is the first comprehensive history of WFP. First, a deep feeling of obligation to set on

xiii xiv Preface record over 30 years of experience during which I enjoyed the highest job sat- isfaction. Second, an abiding sense of frustration that so little of the work of WFP seems to be known outside a relatively small circle of those immediately involved. Throughout this account, it should be remembered that WFP was specifi- cally established with the aim of reaching and benefiting abjectly poor people in the world’s poorest countries with two of their greatest needs – food and work. The main purpose of the book is to examine the issues and challenges facing WFP set against the background of the development of food aid generally, including the early work involved in the antecedents to WFP, and the unique way in which WFP was born. In describing these events, the book con- tains information which is placed in the public domain for the first time. My collection of WFP documents and papers has been deposited in the British Library of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in England. We live in a highly dynamic and changing world. In many ways, this book is a tribute to the people and governments in developing and donor countries, and to the dedication of WFP staff and their collaborators in other aid agencies, in their endeavours to seek a better world for the most disadvantaged of its citizens. I hope that this work will be of assistance to all those involved in the future of food aid generally and of WFP in particular. D. JOHN SHAW Acknowledgements

This book has involved much research and travel, visiting archives and libraries, and interviewing and corresponding with people prominent in the history of WFP. Without their co-operation, it would not have been possible to have given many of the details contained in this work, some of which are revealed publicly for the first time. In many ways, this book is an outcome of the generosity of their time, opinions and recollections, and their collabora- tion in searching through a great deal of historical and archival material. I hope that I have adequately conveyed a sense of indebtedness to them and, particularly, that they feel that the final product repays with gratitude all the help they gave me. I begin my debts of gratitude with those pioneers who were most instru- mental in the birth and advancement of WFP. Principal among these out- standing personalities are two people. More than any other single person, Hans Singer played a major role in the debate and discussions leading up to the creation of WFP. He read the entire draft manuscript of the book and made many perceptive comments for its improvement. It is particularly fitting that he has provided a Foreword to the book. I am also profoundly grateful for the friendship and encouragement he has extended to me over the past 35 years. Senator George McGovern (now United States ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in Rome, Italy), who, when the first director of the United States Food for Peace programme and special assistant to President Kennedy, courageously took the initiative to propose the establishment of WFP, also helped me considerably. Despite a heavy work programme, he corresponded extensively with me, allowed me to interview him, provided me with personal material and access to his papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University, and reviewed in detail the chapter of the book dealing with the part he played in the birth of WFP. I am deeply indebted to him for his co-operation. Governor Orville Freeman, secretary of agriculture in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, gave me his recollections of the support he provided during the crucial early days of WFP, and allowed me access to his personal papers, including the complete collection of the public statements he made during his period of office. Raymond Ioanes, a senior official in the United States Department of Agriculture at the time, sent me his personal account of the support he gave George McGovern at the historic meeting at FAO in Rome, Italy in April 1961, when the proposal to establish WFP was made.

xv xvi Acknowledgements

Others who were especially helpful in clarifying events leading up to the creation of WFP include: Dr Don Paarlberg, who was Food for Peace co-ordinator in the final days of the Eisenhower administration, and a major figure in the US food aid programme in the United States Department of Agriculture; and Francis X. Sutton of the Ford Foundation, who endeavoured to put me in touch with key personalities in the White House during the Kennedy administration. Mary Chambliss of the Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and Tim Lavelle, special assistant to the director, Office of Food for Peace, US Agency for International Development, helped me personally with their own experience and documentation. Sartaj Aziz, senator and former foreign minister of Pakistan, provided me with his recollections and personal papers relating to the 1974 United Nations World Food Conference, when he was a senior FAO official and deputy director-general of the conference, which led to a broader mandate and role for WFP. Dr Thomas J. Knock of the Department of History, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, who is writing a biography of George McGovern, provided me with personal material concerning senator McGovern’s background and achievements. Richard Woodhams, assistant executive director at the International Grains Council in London gave me documentation relating to the background and history of the Food Aid Conventions. I have also benefited from the friendship and encouragement of Professor John Toye, a former director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK; Simon Maxwell, director, and Dr Edward Clay, research officer, at the Overseas Development Institute, London; Dr John W. Mellor of John Mellor Associates, Inc., a former director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC; and Dr Richard Jolly, formerly special assistant to the UNDP administrator and principal co-ordinator of the UNDP annual Human Development Report, and a previous deputy executive director of UNICEF. For their co-operation in guiding me through a vast amount of historical and archival material relating to WFP and its background, I would like to record my sincere appreciation to: Mary Hall, former archivist and staff of the FAO Archives, and staff of the David Lubin Library, FAO, Rome, Italy; Dr Marilla Bliss Guptil, chief, and Seymour Edwards and other staff, of the United Nations Archives and Records Centre in New York; Maureen Ratynski and Nanci St. John at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at the United Nations, New York; Dr William Johnson, chief archivist and staff of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts; archivists John Wilson and Mike Parrish at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas; Dr Charles E. Hanrahan, senior specialist in agricultural policy, and Mary Dunkley of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Dr Milton O, Gustafson, senior archivist at the United States Acknowledgements xvii

National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Susan Fugate, Alan Haeberle and Cheryl Toefield of Special Collections, Lowell Dyson, Economic Research Service, and Susan Chapman, Reference Section, at the National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland; Professor G. Edward Schuh, dean and Dr Stephen Sandall, director, The Humphrey Forum, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dallas Lindgren, reference archivist, Hubert H. Humphrey Collection, Minnesota Historical Society Research Center, St Paul, Minnesota; Dr Ben Primer, university archivist, Nanci Young, Susan Illis, Monica Ruscil, Dan Linke and Lisa Weinstein at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University; and Mary W. George, head, General and Humanitarian Reference Division, Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library, Princeton University, New Jersey; staff at the Walter William Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, Texas; and staff at the British Library of Development Studies and the Library of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom. I am particularly grateful for the professional way in which Maria M. Ellul, president of Kitba Consulting Services, Inc. in Houston, Texas prepared the statistical tables and figures that appear in the book. I am especially indebted to WFP staff at country offices throughout the developing world as well as at WFP headquarters in Rome, Italy. In particular, I would like to mention Dorothy Simpson-Bordi, Tiziana Cassotta, Nicole Jacquet, Paolo Grillo, Fiorella Pantaleo-Tabellini and Andreas Psoroulas for responding to my constant requests for WFP documentation and papers; Trevor Page, previously chief of WFP’s Emergency Service, for reviewing the chapter on WFP emergency and relief operations; and George-Andre Simon and Gian Piero Lucarini who provided the data on which the statistical tables and figures in the book are based. Doug Coutts and Masood Hyder, formerly director and deputy director and staff at the WFP North American Office in New York and Bernd Kaess, formerly director and Heidi Johnson at the WFP Geneva Office provided me with documentation from, and kept me informed of developments in, the United Nations and the UN organizations at those locations. Finally, I owe so much to my wife, son and daughter, to whom this book is dedicated. I alone am responsible for the views expressed in this book and for any shortcomings therein. D. JOHN SHAW This page intentionally left blank Key Events

1943 International conference on food and agriculture convened by US President Roosevelt at Hot Springs, Virginia, in May, which laid the foundation for the creation of FAO. An agreement signed in Washington, DC, in November which led to the establishment of the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administra- tion (UNRRA), the first significant experiment of a multilateral agency to deal with food aid. 1945 Creation of the United Nations and signing of the UN Charter in June at an international conference in San Francisco, California. Foundation of FAO at a conference in Quebec City, Canada in October. 1946 Proposal to establish a ‘world food board’ considered at the first FAO conference in Copenhagen in September. The proposal was not approved. 1948 Start of the European Recovery Programme (the ‘Marshall Plan’), which continued to 1952. 1949 Proposal to establish an ‘international commodity clearing house’, rejected by the FAO Conference. 1950 Negotiations throughout the 1950s to establish a soft-lending multilateral financing facility, known as the Special UN Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED) at the United Nations in New York, leading to the creation of the International Development Association (IDA) at the World Bank in 1959. 1954 FAO Principles of Surplus Disposal formulated and Consultative Sub- committee on Surplus Disposal (CSD) set up in Washington, DC. Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act (Public Law 480) passed, which institutionalized United States food aid. 1955 FAO pilot investigation in India on the use of project food aid (the Ezekiel study). 1958 FAO proposal for an international emergency food reserve (the ‘Three Circles Plan’) not approved. 1960 ‘Freedom from Hunger Campaign’ launched, following FAO Confer- ence resolution 13/59 on 27 October, later extended to 1970. Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy announce support for a multilateral food distribution system during the US presidential election campaign. Senate concurrent resolution No. 114 of 8 August requesting approval of a multilateral food aid facility passed in the US Senate but not in the House of Representatives.

xix xx Key Events

President Eisenhower’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on 22 September included a proposal that ‘a workable scheme be devised for providing food aid through the UN system’. UN General Assembly resolution 1496 (XV) on ‘Provision of food surpluses to food-deficient peoples through the United Nations system’ adopted on 27 October. 1961 Establishment by President Kennedy in January of a Food for Peace office in the White House and appointment of George McGovern as the first director of the Food for Peace programme. President Kennedy’s Executive Order No. 10915 of 24 January on United States food aid to promote the interest of peace in a significant way. Independent expert group report on an ‘Expanded program of Surplus Food Utilization’ presented to the FAO director-general in February. George McGovern’s statement to the FAO Intergovernmental Advisory Committee on the Use of Food Surpluses for Food Deficit People in Rome, Italy, on 10 April proposing the establishment of a multilateral food aid programme on a three-year experimental basis; endorsed by President Kennedy on 21 April. President Kennedy address to the UN General Assembly on 25 September proposing that the decade of the 1960s be designated as the ‘United Nations Decade for Development’. Endorsed by the UN General Assembly in resolution 1710 (XVI) of 19 December. FAO Conference and UN General Assembly parallel resolutions establishing WFP on a three-year experimental basis on 24 November and 19 December respectively. 1962 First session of WFP’s governing body, the Intergovernmental Commit- tee, in February. Addeke Boerma appointed as WFP’s first executive director in April. OECD study on ‘Food Aid and its Role in Economic Development’. McGovern’s letter of resignation as director of the Food for Peace programme to President Kennedy on 18 July. 1964 UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) supports the continuation of WFP after the experimental period. 1965 Five WFP studies by independent experts to assist in the consideration of the future development of multilateral food aid programmes. Creation of UNDP with the amalgamation of the UN Special Fund and the UN Expanded Programme for Technical Assistance. Parallel resolutions of the FAO Conference and UN General Assembly in December establishing WFP on a continuing basis ‘for as long as multilateral food aid is found feasible and desirable’ on 6 and 20 December respectively. Key Events xxi

1966 Report of WFP study on programme food aid in Jamaica; not approved by WFP’s governing body. 1967 First Food Aid Convention negotiated together with an International Wheat Agreement as part of an International Grains Arrangement. 1968 Sushil Dey appointed as acting WFP executive director in January following the election of Addeke Boerma as FAO director-general. Francisco Aquino appointed WFP executive director in August. UN/FAO ‘multilateral food aid study’ pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 2462 (XXIII) of 20 December. Review of WFP staffing, management and organization by Booz, Allen and Hamilton. 1970 WFP governing body study of the ‘Role of Food Aid during the Second United Nations Development Decade’ of the 1970s, pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 2462 (XXIII). 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, Sweden. 1974 World Food Conference organized by the United Nations held in Rome, Italy, from 5 to 16 November adopted, inter alia, resolution XVIII on ‘An improved policy for food aid’ and recommended the reconstitution of WFP’s governing body, and establishment of World Food Council (WFC), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS). 1975 Reconstitution of WFP’s governing body from the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) to the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Prog- rammes (CFA) as recommended by the World Food Conference following UN General Assembly resolution 3404 (XXX) of 28 November. Establishment of the International Emergency Food Reserve (IEFR) by UN General Assembly resolution 3362 (S-VII). FAO Global Information and Early Warning System established. First UN World Conference on Women, Mexico City, Mexico. 1976 First session of the CFA in April/May. Thomas Robinson appointed acting WFP executive Director in May following the resignation of Francisco Aquino, and full executive director in July 1977 until his retirement in September 1977. UN Decade for Women (1976–85) designated by the UN General Assembly. ILO Conference on Employment, Income Distribution, Social Progress and the International Division of Labour, Geneva, Switzerland. UN Conference on Human Settlements, Vancouver, Canada. 1977 Garson Vogel appointed WFP executive director in September. 1978 Modalities of operation of the IEFR approved by the CFA at its sixth session in October. xxii Key Events

1979 The CFA recommended a set of ‘guidelines and criteria’ for all food aid at its seventh session in May. 1980 Second UN Conference for Women at midpoint of UN Decade for Women, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1981 Bernado de Azevedo Brito appointed acting WFP executive director in May following the death of Garson Vogel. 1982 Juan Yriat appointed acting WFP executive director in February following the resignation of Bernado Brito. James Ingram appointed as WFP executive director in April. 1984 FAO World Conference on Fisheries Management and Development, Rome, Italy. 1985 Third UN World Conference on Women to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the UN Decade for Women, Nairobi, Kenya. 1986 Comprehensive organizational and management review of the WFP secretariat by McKinsey and Company. 1988 COPAC/WFP International Symposium on Food and Co-operatives for Development, Vienna, Austria. 1990 World Summit for Children held by UNICEF in New York. 1991 Revision of WFP general regulations and enlargement of the CFA approved, entering into force on 1 January 1992. UN General Assembly adopts resolution 46/182 on 19 December on the strengthening of the co-ordination of UN humanitarian assistance. 1992 Catherine Bertini appointed as WFP executive director in April following the completion of the term of office of James Ingram. WFP report on the integration of multilateral non-emergency food aid with government development programmes and with other assistance provided by the UN system. FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition, Rome, Italy. UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs set up in New York. UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s Agenda for Peace. UN General Assembly passes resolution 47/199 on 22 December on the country programming of UN development assistance. 1993 World Bank Conference on Overcoming Global Hunger, Washington, DC. UN World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, Austria. UN General Assembly adopts resolution 48/162 on further measures for the restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields, including the establishment of similar executive boards for the UN funds and programmes, including WFP. Key Events xxiii

1994 WFP policy seminar on ‘Hunger and Social Action’. WFP’s new mission statement adopted by the CFA. UNFPA International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, Egypt. 1995 UN World Summit on Social Development, Copenhagen, Denmark. Fourth UN Conference on Women, Beijing, China. UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s Agenda for Development. 1996 First session of WFP’s executive board held in January. FAO World Food Summit, Rome, Italy. 1997 UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s proposals for reform of the UN system. WFP/UNU seminar on ‘Ending the Inheritance of Hunger’. 1998 WFP consultation on the theme ‘Time for Change: Food Aid and Development’. 1999 WFP executive board decides that WFP should continue to provide development as well as emergency assistance. This page intentionally left blank Notes on the Text

1. All monetary values are expressed in United States dollars ($), unless otherwise stated. 2. All quantities are given in metric tons, unless otherwise specified. 3. One billion equals 1,000 million. 4. All statistical tables and figures have been produced from the WFP INTERFAIS database, unless otherwise stated. The values given in the tables have been rounded to the nearest US$ thousand or US$ million, unless otherwise stated. 5. Low-income, food-deficit countries include all net cereal-importing countries with a per capita GNP not exceeding the level used by the World Bank to determine eligibility for soft lending from its International Development Association (IDA). 6. In its resolution 2768 (XXVI) of 18 November 1971, the United Nations General Assembly singled out the poorest countries for special attention. They were called the ‘least-developed countries’ (LDCs) and were defined as ‘countries with severe long-term constraints on development assessed on three basic criteria: per capita GDP of $100 or less at 1970 prices; share of manufacturing of 10 per cent or less of GDP; and 20 per cent or less literate persons aged 15 years or more’. New criteria established in 1991 defined LDCs as ‘those low-income countries that are suffering from long-term handicaps to growth, in particular low levels of human resource development and/or severe structural weaknesses’. 7. The WFP administrative regions referred to in this study are as follows: Sub- Saharan Africa, comprising all the countries south of the Sahara, except South Africa, and including the islands off the coast of the African continent; the Europe, Middle East and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region encompasses all African countries north of the Sahara and those of southern and eastern Europe and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Pakistan, Romania and Turkey, and the republics of the former Yugoslavia and ex-Soviet Union; the Asia and the Pacific region includes all countries east of Thailand, including South East Asia and the Pacific Ocean islands; the Latin America and Caribbean region comprises all Central and Latin American and Caribbean countries south of the United States. 8. To 1967, WFP was written in the American spelling ‘World Food Program’. Thereafter, it has been written in the English spelling ‘World Food Programme’.

xxv xxvi Notes on the Text

19. WFP’s governing body, originally the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC), was reconstituted as the Committee of Food Aid Policies and Programmes (CFA) in 1976, and changed to the Executive Committee in 1996. 10. Up to and including its twenty-second session in October 1986, the reports of the CFA sessions were referred to as the ‘Report of the United Nations/FAO Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes’. Thereafter, they were called ‘Report of the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes’. List of Abbreviations

ACABQ Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (UN) ACC Administrative Committee on Co-ordination (UN) ACC/SCN Administrative Committee on Co-ordination/Sub-committee on Nutrition (UN) CARE Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere CCP Committee on Commodity Problems (FAO) CEC Commission of the European Communities CFA Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes CFS Committee on World Food Security (FAO) COPAC Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Co-operatives CRS Catholic Relief Services CSD Consultative Sub-committee on Surplus Disposal (FAO) DHA Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UN) ECOSOC Economic and Social Council (UN) EPTA Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance (UN) EU European Union (formerly European Community) FAC Food Aid Convention FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN FFHC Freedom for Hunger Campaign (FAO) FFP Food from Peace Programme (US) FFW Food-for-work GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product GNP Gross National Product IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IDA International Development Association (World Bank) IEFR International Emergency Food Reserve IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute IGC Intergovernmental Committee (WFP) ILO International Labour Organization IMF International Monetary Fund INTERFAIS International Food Aid Information System (WFP)

xxvii xxviii List of Abbreviations

IRA Immediate Response Account (of IEFR) ITSH Internal transport, storage and handling JIU Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations LDC Least-developed country MOU Memorandum of understanding NGO Non-governmental organization ODA Official Development Assistance OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries PROs Protracted refugee and displaced person operations SADC Southern Africa Development Community SUNFED Special UN Fund for Economic Development UN United Nations UNBRO United Nations Border Relief Operation (Thailand) UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA United Nations Fund for Population Activities UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration USDA US Department of Agriculture WFC World Food Council (UN) WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization