International U.S. Food Aid Hindered, Investigators Find

Multiple challenges hinder the efficiency of U.S. food aid programs by reducing the amount, timeliness, and quality of food provided, according to a recent government audit.

The United States is the largest global food aid donor, accounting for over half of all food aid supplies to alleviate hunger and support development. Since 2002, Congress has appropriated an average of $2 billion per year for U.S. food aid programs, which delivered an average of 4 million metric tons of food commodities per year, says a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.

Despite growing demand for food aid, rising business and transportation costs have contributed to a 52 percent decline in average tonnage delivered over the last five years, GAO finds.

"Specific factors that cause inefficiencies include (1) funding and planning processes that increase delivery costs and lengthen time frames; (2) ocean transportation and contracting practices that create high levels of risk for ocean carriers, resulting in increased rates; (3) legal requirements that result in awarding of food aid contracts to more expensive service providers; and (4) inadequate coordination between U.S. agencies and food aid stakeholders to track and respond to food and delivery problems," the GAO report says.

"U.S. agencies have taken some steps to address timeliness concerns," it adds. "The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been stocking or prepositioning food commodities domestically and abroad, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has implemented a new transportation bid process, but the long-term cost effectiveness of these initiatives has not yet been measured."

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