Table Of ContentThe UN World Food
Programme and the
Development of Food Aid
D. John Shaw
The UN World Food Programme and the Development of Food Aid
Also by D. John Shaw
FOOD AID AND THE WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
(co-edited with J. P. Greaves)
FOOD POLICY, FOOD AID AND ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT (co-edited with H. W. Singer)
POVERTY, DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD: Essays in Honour of H. W. Singer on his 75th
Birthday (co-edited with Edward Clay)
THE QUEST FOR FOOD SECURITY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
(co-edited with Hélène Delisle)
WORLD FOOD AID AND EXPERIENCES OF RECIPIENTS AND DONORS
(co-edited with Edward Clay)
The UN World Food Programme
and the Development of
Food Aid
D. John Shaw
Foreword by Sir Hans Singer
© D.John Shaw 2001
Foreword © H.W.Singer 2001
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Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2001 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shaw,D.John.
The UNWorld Food Programme and the development
of food aid / D.John Shaw.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.World Food Programme—History.2.Food relief–
–International cooperation—History.I.Title.
HV696.F6 S53 2000
363.8'56—dc21
00–053046
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
To my wife, Ileana, my rock and my strength, and to
my son and daughter, David and Elizabeth, for their
understanding and support
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables viii
Foreword by Professor Sir Hans Singer ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Key Events xix
Notes on the Text xxv
List of Abbreviations xxvii
1 Introduction 1
2 The Birth of WFP: One Man’s Inspiration 6
3 Antecedents: A Tale of Three Cities 19
4 The Experimental Years: 1963–5 37
5 Food for Development 67
6 Emergency and Relief Operations 145
7 Managing Food Aid Resources 188
8 Constitutional Change: The Byzantine Vortex 205
9 Reform and Renewal: Future Directions 225
Statistical Appendices 253
Notes 256
Bibliography 266
Dramatis Personae 291
Index 296
vii
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
5.1 Share of WFP development commitments by country group,
1976–95 86
5.2 Regional WFP commitments for development projects and
relief and emergency operations, 1963–95 87
6.1 WFP commitments for emergency operations by type, 1963–95 157
6.2 WFP commitments for emergency operations by region, 1963–95 159
Tables
5.1 World Food Programme resources, 1963–74 68
5.2 WFP development commitments by region, 1963–95 84
5.3 WFP commitments by category of development project,
1963–95 85
6.1 WFP commitments for emergency operations by type,
1963–95 155
6.2 WFP commitments for protracted refugee and displaced
person operations by region, 1989–95 156
6.3 WFP commitments for emergency operations by region,
1963–95 158
7.1 WFP food deliveries by commodity category, 1991–5 190
7.2 Major donors to WFP by type of pledge or contribution for
biennium 1995–6, as at 31 December 1995 191
Statistical Appendix Tables
1 Regional WFP cumulative commitments for development
projects and relief and emergency operations by category and
type approved up to 31 December 1995 253
2 Total WFP commitments and number of development projects
and emergency operations by region, 1962–95 255
viii
Foreword
The World Food Programme (WFP) occupies a high place among the achieve-
ments of the United Nations. As with all aid agencies, inside and outside the
UN system, there have been difficulties and failures, but, on balance, WFP is a
success story. It has become an acknowledged centre of expertise and experi-
ence in the effective delivery and use of food aid for development and in
times of emergencies.
Nobody is better qualified to write the history of WFP than John Shaw. He
was associated with WFP for over thirty years, almost from the start of its
operations, in a succession of senior posts. Since his official retirement in
1994, he has continued to give his attention to the role of food aid in general,
and to WFP in particular, in food security, economic development and relief
efforts for the sufferers of conflicts and disasters. His present book – following
upon extensive previous writings on food aid and development and author-
ship of many important papers, documents and reports – shows his ency-
clopaedic knowledge of the history and operations of WFP. It represents a
major contribution to the history of food aid since the Second World War.
My own involvement with food aid was closely linked with negotiations in
the 1950s concerning the creation of a multilateral soft aid programme in the
United Nations, a Special UN Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED). It
eventually became clear that the financial soft aid then under discussion would
go to the World Bank rather than to the United Nations as the International
Development Association (IDA), the soft aid window of the World Bank. But it
also became clear by the late 1950s that a multilateral extension of the United
States food aid programme (enacted as Public Law 480 in 1954) was acceptable
to the republican administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and also
formed part of the proposals of the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign
that led to the election of President John F. Kennedy.
In these favourable political circumstances, a multilateral food aid pro-
gramme under the auspices of the United Nations that would help to reduce
the burdensome and costly US food surpluses of the day became feasible.
Given the existence in the UN system of a specialized agency in food and agri-
culture, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it was clear that this
particular segment of the original SUNFED proposal would remain in the UN
system. Both the UN and FAO, under the vigorous leadership of its director-
general B. R. Sen, seized the opportunity and set up a group of experts (of
which I became chairman) to give shape to the general idea and provide a set
of guidelines. Subsequently, WFP was successfully negotiated and established
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