Going the Distance: The Food Aid Supply Chain

Going the Distance: The Food Aid Supply Chain

U.S. food aid passes through three stages between farmers and food aid recipients.²⁵ Each offers opportunities to improve efficiency, thus enabling the program to provide higher-quality foods and/or serve more people.

Procurement

The Office of Food for Peace at USAID and the Foreign Agricultural Service of USDA fill orders for food aid placed by the World Food Program and nongovernmental organizations such as World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and Mercy Corps. The raw commodities are then sent for milling and fortification. There is a strict protocol for quality control, but a 2011 GAO report noted several concerns, including instances of failure to meet vitamin content specifications, the presence of salmonella and insects, rodent infestation, and poor data tracking through various stages of the supply chain. To their credit, government offices in charge of quality control processes have taken steps to address problems. But they themselves admit that quality assurance would be jeopardized if funding cuts force the elimination of services.

Transport

U.S. policies require that 75 percent of food aid must be shipped on U.S.-flagged vessels, so there is little room to economize under current law. However, shipping from the United States uses up as much as 50 percent of the total food aid budget and takes four to six months. Thus, no area presents a greater opportunity to save money than the reform of “cargo preference” laws.

Distribution

When the food aid arrives, the World Food Program or another implementing partner takes possession of it and distributes it to the recipients. This is the end of the supply chain, but it would improve the process if there were also an evaluation of nutritional outcomes. After all, improving people’s nutritional status is the whole purpose of food aid, and no one can know whether the goal is being met without evaluation. Evaluation would also provide information to help identify problems at the end of the supply chain—for example, is food aid at risk of contamination from being mixed with unclean water?