My colleagues have written extensively about the need for a long-term response to the sudden and sharp rise in food prices. Investments in agriculture, particularly in technology and infrastructure, are a must to deal with food availability over the long run.
Supporting agriculture is critical, and will pay off in the long-term, but there is also a need for a short-term response. Quite simply, long-term solutions won't put food in the mouths of people today. World Vision Canada recently announced that they are going to have to cut back on their food aid programs because they simply can't afford to buy food at current market prices. The World Food Program has similarly suggested that without a major infusion of cash, they will not be able to meet expected need.
What should the short-term response look like? The U.S. has already released $200 million from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust which signals a needed infusion of basic grains for food aid programs. A newly released Chatham House Briefing Paper argues for the need for moving away from in-kind food aid and toward a cash or voucher type program that would enable people to buy food on local markets.
And then there is the important issue raised by Medecins Sans Frontieres. As I wrote several months ago, it's the quality of the food as much as the quantity that matters in food aid programming. MSF has been a strong advocate for improving the quality of food aid, and this emergency situation should not obscure the fact that quality is an important consideration in all food aid programming. Especially to meet the heightened nutritional needs of young children, simply providing basic staple grains is not enough. Fortified food, even animal source proteins such as such as milk are essential for young children.
It is important that the world act in the short-term to ensure that people do not starve and that this period of sudden increased vulnerability does not leave lasting physical scars on children. Let us not forget, however, that meeting this objective requires not just more food, but more of the RIGHT food.
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