Ever since the United Nations announced its Millennium Development Goals in 2000, there has been an ever-increasing sense of urgency with regard to ending global poverty. It is widely agreed that the most important objective of ending global poverty is eradicating global hunger, and one important mechanism for this has been the provision of food aid. It is estimated that more than 850 million people worldwide are suffering from chronic hunger. For the first time in history, we have the means and resources to tackle this pervasive problem.

In a report to the German Marshall Fund, Andreas Schneider of the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) examined the relationships among food aid, WTO rules, and development. His analysis suggests that food aid per se is not a wasteful way to help the poor if it is procured and targeted in an efficient way. This is the core finding of a study which suggests that if food aid is granted in the form of project food aid for monetization, and completely untied and targeted in an efficient manner, it can be an effective way of alleviating hunger while having minimal distorting effects on trade and local production. 

In his study Schneider systematically dissects the various arguments around food aid by providing definitions, outlining the broad trends in food aid types, and analyzing the procurement and effectiveness of food aid. He observed the following recent trends:

• There has been a decline in the absolute amount of "additional" food aid

• Food aid is also less important in relative terms, as is the proportion of food aid in total development assistance

• The emergence of tied food aid means that it is important to be clear on the three definitions of food aid and their relative components in total food aid

• The relationships among food aid types, procurement, and delivery practices have implications for the tied vs. untied debate