Obama's Budget Fixes America's Wacky Food Aid Program-Sort Of (The Atlantic)
Senior Fellow Kimberly Ann Elliott is quoted in The Atlantic on Congressional response to food aid reforms in Obama's proposed 2014 budget.
But tucked into President Obama's proposed 2014 budget is a total overhaul of the $1.5 billion program, which will allow aid groups to instead buy up to 45 percent of their food in local markets -- that is, in the countries or regions closest to the disaster areas they're intended for -- a major change that aid groups and politicians have been urging for more than a decade.
The reforms would also end monetization, or the practice in which NGOs sell their leftover, American relief food in local markets in order to fund some of their non-food programs, like clinics and school books. The GAO says monetization is wasteful -- it costs an average of 25 cents on every taxpayer dollar spent on food aid. Instead, the 2014 budget proposal offers a lump sum of $330 million for programs that were formerly funded through monetization.
Many aid groups are heralding the overhaul as a step that would allow them greater flexibility in how they use their relief money. Not only will they save by buying the less expensive, local food, many NGOs say the new system will prevent farmers in developing countries from being pushed out of their local markets by an influx of monetization-food.
Of course, there's a good chance this part of the proposal will meet pushback in Congress. A bipartisan group of senators has already tried to block the change by arguing that American farmers and shippers need all the help they can get in this economy.
"It's definitely going to be a battle," said Kim Elliott, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, adding that past attempts to change the system have resulted in drawn-out political feuds and, ultimately, nothing more than tiny pilot programs. "The whole point of our food aid budget is to help foreigners first and foremost and help the U.S. in the long run. Is this really the right way to subsidize the maritime industry and the farmers?"
