Improving food security by improving the effectiveness of our aid

In a new briefing paper put out by Bread for the World Institute, John Mellor, former Director-General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Chief Economist at USAID and Professor, Cornell University, argues that the approach taken to delivering aid has made U.S. interventions in the area of agriculture and food security far less effective than it could have been.

In the last few decades, U.S. foreign assistance has largely supported a collection of disparate projects and interventions rather than a coherent, consistent program that is flexible and responsive to conditions in developing countries. As a result, it has not had a transformative impact at the country level. Mellor suggests that USAID should once again focus attention on broad-based measures and approaches that will improve agricultural and economic growth rates, and reduce poverty at the national level. This will involve renewed emphasis on agriculture and rural development, women’s participation in the economy, education, infrastructure and capable national institutions and will require a much more deliberate development strategy carried out over a longer time horizon. To plan and implement such a strategy, USAID urgently needs to rebuild its technical capacity, especially in agriculture, rural development and economics that has been allowed to diminish over the past decades.

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