FOOD AID-THE DOUBLE STANDARDS

Rich countries do have considerations for the sufferings and miseries of people in many third world countries and billions of dollars worth of food are donated under many aid programs. In spite of such generosity, world's poor continue to famish with no hope for reversal of this trend. Though sociologists feel strongly that rich nations must increase the quality and quantity of aid to make any significant impact on poverty and malnutrition, there are practical and logistical problems that need to be overcome if the utopia of universal peace has to be realized. It was only recently that the US was blamed for reducing the impact of the food aid program because of insistence on using only US registered carriers to transport the food to aid receiving countries though the freight cost was 60% more than other carriers. Similarly aid givers are blamed for dumping the surplus food grains from their own countries into the recipient countries incurring high costs where as same money if spent on buying the grains locally would have covered more beneficiaries. Here is another criticism about the inadequate nutrition quality of food blends presently being distributed for the benefit of children less than two years old which has the potential to stunt the growth of children. Probably such a thing has happened because of inadequate evaluation of the impact of these types of programs periodically.

"A US-backed campaign highlighting the importance of quality nutrition in a child's first 1,000 days contradicts its own food aid policy for developing countries, says a medical charity. The 1,000 Days campaign was prompted by findings published in The Lancet in 2008 confirming that the first two years of life were a "window of opportunity", when nutrition programmes had an enormous impact on a child's development, with life-long benefits. Yet, the US delivers US$2 billion worth of food aid largely comprising corn soya blend containing no animal-source food, which is not ideal for children younger than two or moderately malnourished children, says Emi MacLean, US manager for the Access Campaign for Essential Medicines of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF has been lobbying for some years for reforms in international food aid for young children, who are most affected in a food security crisis. Providing quality nutrition in the first 1,000 days can save a million children every year, according to a new effort by UN and other partners to scale-up nutrition in poor countries. Most international food aid consists of blended flour, which does not include animal-source protein such as milk and essential minerals and vitamins. However, most European donors now provide money to buy food, rather than donations. In response to MSF's criticism, a US Agency for International Development (USAID) spokeswoman pointed to a blog post written by Ertharin Cousin, the US ambassador to the UN agencies in Rome. While Cousin did not address the nutritional deficiencies in the aid the US provides, she noted that the US Congress had earmarked $14 million for a pilot project to "field-test new or improved micronutrient-fortified food aid products" and to innovate around the nutritional content and composition of food aid products".

It is true that milk proteins are considered to be the best one in terms of amino acid profile besides the presence of f almost all essential nutrients present in this omnipotent food. How ever the protein cost from milk can be quite high compared to that from plant proteins and the aid givers have the Hobson's choice regarding the quality versus quantity consideration. If milk solids are included the cost invariably will go up and the coverage will obviously be less. The willingness on the part of USA to have a re-look at the program and consider bringing about improvements is itself a positive development. One can only hope that the new micro-nutrient fortified food aid products being developed and field-tested would remedy the present lacunae in the program.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
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