WTO Proposal Limits Food Aid
Proposal circulated in WTO trade talks prevents private voluntary organizations from directly requesting and distributing food aid.
Compiled by staff
Published: Apr 20, 2006
World agricultural trade leaders are in Geneva this week hoping to settle differences ahead of a scheduled April 30 deadline for specifying agricultural cuts in tariffs and trade practices. One proposal on the table prohibits private voluntary organizations from sponsoring food aid programs in developing countries.
The proposal is based on a paper being circulated by the chairman of the WTO's Committee on Agriculture. The new approach would prevent American private voluntary organizations from directly requesting and distributing food aid from the U.S. government unless they worked through an inter-governmental agency.
The European Union has pushed for food aid reforms in the current trade negotiations.
Catholic Relief Services President Ken Hackett says the present practice of PVOs teaming with local partners in developing countries works effectively and efficiently in fighting hunger. Hackett countered that the proposed system of channeling all food aid through international organizations like the United Nations will just tangle food aid in more red tape and impede timely delivery of urgent aid.
A statement from CRS says "adding layers of bureaucracy will hamper the ability of experienced humanitarian workers to act in the face of pressing need." CRS and other organizations coordinate closely with other humanitarian actors on the ground, but sometimes operate a separately-funded program in order to ensure timely response and prevent breaks in the supply of life-saving resources.
"PVOs such as CRS are in much closer touch with people in need than these inter-governmental bodies," Hackett says. "If we had to wait for them in every emergency, people would go hungry. Our role is to respond quickly and effectively to real needs of real people."
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Tagged: agricultural trade, hunger, United Nations
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