ABSTRACT
The world of food aid and food assistance has changed markedly over the past decade, and largely for the better. An increasingly emergency-oriented, needs-based, multilateral, and professional approach based on a broader informational and resource toolkit has substantially improved the cost-effectiveness and human impacts—both short-term and long-term—of food assistance programs. The rapid rise of cash-based and LRP programs, prepositioned food aid, micronutrient-rich ready-to-use foods, and improved information collection and analysis systems for emergency programming has enabled quicker, cheaper responses better tailored to the needs of disaster-affected populations. Problems remain, to be sure—especially in the antiquated global institutional architecture for food assistance and persistent difficulties linking short-term humanitarian assistance to longer-term food security interventions and matching assessments and resources. But this is nonetheless progress worth celebrating.
