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 achieve- ments 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 experi- ence 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 pro- gramme 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 agri- culture, 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’.