The Food Aid Debate in Trade and Development. CEPS Policy Briefs No. 89, 1 December 2005

This policy brief provides an overview of the magnitude and importance of food aid as a development tool, and looks at whether the efficiency problem is intrinsic to food aid, or whether it arises from donor-country policies that tend to misuse food aid – in some cases for purposes for which it is demonstrably not effective – for example to support domestic farm prices, to promote commercial agricultural exports, to maintain a viable maritime industry or even to advance geo-strategic aims