The large amount of food aid that was required to meet Africa's emergency food situation resulted in the postponement of some fundamental decisions that were being taken about food aid use in sub-Saharan Africa. Now the donor community and recipient governments are again giving priority to integrating food aid with other available resources in order to meet longer-term food policy and wider development objectives. This paper looks at some of the policy and management issues which need to be addressed if the effectiveness of food aid assistance is to be improved in the current African context. Shortages of locally qualified personnel to administer project food aid have proven to be a major bottleneck in most sub-Saharan countries. Most sub-Saharan states receive food aid from a variety of sources: multilateral, bilateral and a few private-voluntary organizations. As a result, countervailing priorities are set by the donors themselves and give rise to conflicts. The recent drought and famine conditions have compounded an image problem in which food aid is narrowly identified by recipient governments as a project resource to be used primarily for nutrition interventions and for the rural sector. The image problem often limits project selection and overlooks innovative uses of food aid. Many sub-Saharan countries are starting to acquire considerable amounts of counterpart funds from program food aid. However, their use is not coherently integrated with the total aid flow. Multi-year programming has emerged as a management issue which has unnecessarily divided the food aid donor community. The fundamental issue is flexibility in programming, not multi-year programming. The major policy objective now facing the food aid donor community and recipient countries is how to lower emergency allocations while simultaneously increasing project and program aid. Most nonfood-aid donor agencies and their constituent bodies do not treat food aid as a valid economic resource, thereby undermining its effectiveness. The eventual success of food aid use in Africa may be a function of the recipient governments and other major donor and financial organizations.

中文翻译：

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饥荒过后

为满足非洲紧急粮食形势所需的大量粮食援助导致正在就撒哈拉以南非洲粮食援助使用情况作出的一些基本决定被推迟。现在，捐助界和受援国政府再次将粮食援助与其他可用资源结合起来，以实现长期粮食政策和更广泛的发展目标。本文着眼于在当前非洲背景下如果要提高粮食援助的有效性需要解决的一些政策和管理问题。在大多数撒哈拉以南国家，缺乏管理项目粮食援助的当地合格人员已被证明是一个主要瓶颈。大多数撒哈拉以南国家从各种来源获得粮食援助：多边、双边和一些私人志愿组织。结果，抵消性优先事项由捐助者自己设定并引发冲突。最近的干旱和饥荒状况加剧了形象问题，其中受援国政府狭隘地将粮食援助确定为主要用于营养干预和农村部门的项目资源。形象问题通常会限制项目选择并忽视粮食援助的创新用途。许多撒哈拉以南国家开始从计划粮食援助中获得大量配套资金。然而，它们的使用并没有与总援助流量相结合。多年规划已经成为一个管理问题，它不必要地分裂了粮食援助捐助界。根本问题是编程的灵活性，不是多年编程。粮食援助捐助界和受援国目前面临的主要政策目标是如何降低紧急拨款，同时增加项目和计划援助。大多数非粮食援助捐助机构及其组成机构并未将粮食援助视为有效的经济资源，从而削弱了其有效性。非洲粮食援助使用的最终成功可能是受援国政府和其他主要捐助者和金融组织的作用。从而削弱其有效性。非洲粮食援助使用的最终成功可能是受援国政府和其他主要捐助者和金融组织的作用。从而削弱其有效性。非洲粮食援助使用的最终成功可能是受援国政府和其他主要捐助者和金融组织的作用。