GLOBAL: Food aid on the back burner as WTO talks collapse
JOHANNESBURG, 4 August 2008 (IRIN): As countries grapple with high food prices, attempts to draw attention to an inefficient food aid delivery system have been pushed to the back burner (sat i anden række/stillet i bero) after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks collapsed last week.
Revised rules in the WTO negotiating text on agriculture had broadened the scope of “monetisation” – selling food aid to raise cash – to include buying agricultural inputs and using the money, where necessary, to fund transporting food aid.
“If the WTO permits the continuation of the monetisation of food aid resources for purposes not connected to the cost of food aid delivery, it will undermine the credibility of the Food Aid Convention (the international treaty on food aid) at a critical moment,” wrote four leading food aid policy analysts in a letter to Crawford Falconer, chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations.
“As important as some of the other uses of monetisation proceeds may be (for example, purchase and supply of agricultural inputs), it would be far wiser to seek these resources in the form of cash assistance rather than jeopardise the system of international food aid as a whole,” the analysts stated.
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