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24 March 2011

GPPi experts testify at German Bundestag hearing on food aid

On 23 March, during a hearing in front of the German Bundestag’s Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, GPPi associate director Julia Steets and research associate Alexander Gaus shared their perspective on how to reform the Food Aid Convention, which is currently under renegotiation. The presentation was part of a hearing devoted to the role and future of the Food Aid Convention, an international treaty to which Germany is a signatory.

Above all, Steets and Gaus stressed that the convention needs urgent reform, arguing that it remains rooted in an outdated surplus disposal paradigm and favors responses that neither follow from careful evaluation of recipients’ needs nor reflect recent innovations in food assistance. In order to overcome such deficiencies, they said, signatories should use the upcoming renegotiations to revamp the convention and agree on a wider range of tools for both new food assistance methods and recovery activities. Steets and Gaus also pointed to options for strengthening the convention’s governance. They highlighted that in its present form, the convention is neither transparent nor does it allow for effective donor coordination.