USAID: Budget Justification, Fiscal Year 2001

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Budget Justification
FY 2001

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OFFICE OF FOOD FOR PEACE

Strengthening USAID's Development Partners (BHR)

962-001/962-002 Increased Capacity of Private Voluntary and Cooperative Development Organizations to Enhance their Title II Planning, Implementation and Evaluation Capacities

U.S. Financing Table for 963-001/960-001 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)

USAID central programs, through the Office of Food for Peace, support sustained improvement in household and agricultural productivity for vulnerable groups served by USAID food aid programs. The program does so through increasing USAID's partners' effectiveness in carrying out Title II development activities with measurable results related to food security and meeting critical food needs in emergencies. Substantial portions of this program address partners' capacity to mount effective nutrition and child survival activities. As a result of these activities, private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and cooperative development organizations (CDOs) benefit from an increased capacity for Title II planning, implementation and evaluation. Institutional support assistance helps PVOs and CDOs design and implement P.L. 480 Title II programs aimed at fostering food security. Institutional support assistance agreements provide support to PVOs and CDOs to: (1) better target food aid activities; (2) promote increased country (national) food security through better definition of purpose, key elements, trends, data quality and discrepancies, and local government commitment; (3) further develop and implement common, generic food aid performance indicators and mutually acceptable methodologies that cooperating sponsors and USAID can use in measuring the impact of food aid; and (4) establish sound monitoring and evaluation systems.

Program Summary (In Thousands of Dollars)

FY 1998
Actual FY 1999
Actual FY 2000
Estimated FY 2001
Request

P.L. 480 TITLE II Supplement
837,000 837,000
149,200 800,000 837,000

P.L. 480 TITLE III
30,000 25,000 0 0

Total
867,000 1,011,200 800,000 837,000

U.S. support for overseas food aid was formalized in the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, also known as P.L. 480. The basic legislation, which has been modified many times, establishes the U.S. policy of using our abundant agricultural resources and food processing capabilities to enhance food security in the developing world through the provision of culturally acceptable, nutritious food commodities. On a global level, more than 800 million people today are chronically undernourished and more than 180 million children are significantly underweight. For the United States, reducing the number of chronically undernourished and hungry people throughout the world is both a humanitarian concern and strategic goal. We give our food resources to help those in need and in crisis, as we seek to eliminate the food insecurity that fuels political instability and environmental degradation. P.L. 480 is a people-to-people program, from the people of the United States to people overseas who do not have access to sufficient food to meet their needs for a healthy and productive life.

P.L. 480 Title II Emergency Food Aid

The objective of P.L. 480 Title II emergency food aid is to meet critical food needs of targeted vulnerable groups. In particular, the Office of Food for Peace aims to maintain or improve the nutritional status of refugees, internally displaced families, or those who lose their land or livelihoods because of natural or man-made disasters. Emergency humanitarian food interventions are implemented primarily by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and U.S. private voluntary organizations (PVOs) with most food going to women and children. The volatile circumstances in which humanitarian assistance is provided pose obstacles to reaching identified targeted groups in need. Access to beneficiaries is often limited due to security constraints or lack of infrastructure. Despite this challenge, Title II programs provided over $500 million of emergency food aid to an estimated 11 million beneficiaries in 1999. Programs were implemented in 22 countries.

Although beneficiaries include victims of natural disasters, such as drought (Sahelian West Africa) or hurricane (Central America), the majority of programs address complex humanitarian situations frequently caused by civil strife (Kosovo/East Timor.) Most food aid beneficiaries are refugees or internally displaced people, primarily malnourished children, women, orphans, unaccompanied children, and the elderly. The following activities and accomplishments are illustrative:

In Honduras, the Food for Peace Office provided over 45,000 metric tons (MT) of Title II emergency food aid valued at over $80 million to Hurricane Mitch-affected groups. The provision of food to school children maintained attendance at the pre-primary and primary school level in the flood-affected areas. One of the program's objectives was to maintain the nutritional well-being of affected populations by providing food aid for use by those in shelters.

In Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia, Title II programs initiated in FY 1999 continued to feed 1,250,000 people affected by the war. Besides providing food to the most vulnerable groups, U.S. food aid was used to feed families who volunteered to shelter the refugees. In Kosovo, Title II remains the principal international food aid response for the many returnees as economic recovery begins.

In Rwanda, Title II emergency food aid programs responded to changing situations as the country drew away from years of war but still struggled with socioeconomic problems and instability. Food-for-work activities rehabilitated rural infrastructure and revitalized agricultural production and farming systems.

The Food for Peace Office has implemented a proactive and very successful advance positioning activity for Title II commodities at U.S. ports. These stocks have permitted immediate and successful response to emergency food aid needs in Sudan, Kosovo, Central America, and East Timor. The Food for Peace Office was able to expedite the response to the Kosovo crisis by setting up storage "relay" points in Greece and Bulgaria. In addition, the office's use of prepositioned stocks reduced the delivery time for commodities to East Timor to less than six weeks.

P.L. 480 Title II Development Food Aid

Title II non-emergency food aid is focused on mitigating food insecurity through activities implemented by private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and the World Food Program (WFP). These organizations utilize Title II food resources to reduce food insecurity in the developing world, primarily through activities that enhance household nutrition or increase agricultural production. During FY 1999, Title II commodity and Section 202(e) resources amounting to approximately $435 million were provided to our partners in support of non-emergency food aid activities. Of that amount, $377 million (including ocean freight) were provided through 12 U.S. PVO cooperative sponsors and four local nongovernmental organizations. The balance, approximately $58 million, was made available to WFP through the inter-governmental donor pledging process to support maternal and child health, school feeding, and nutritionally vulnerable group feeding in over 25 low-income food deficit countries.

The following examples of Title II non-emergency activities demonstrate the variety of non-emergency interventions that are undertaken and the significant impact on food security that they achieve:

Half of Bangladesh's 127 million inhabitants do not have access to sufficient food to lead an active and healthy life. Out of these, some 30 million, the ultra poor, consume less than 1,805 kilocalories per day. Historically, Title II supported CARE and World Food Program activities in Bangladesh. With the addition of World Vision Inc., the Title II allocation for Bangladesh in FY 2000 is approximately $50 million consisting of 201,000 tons of food aid. The CARE intervention, funded by annual sales of 120,000 metric tons wheat, creates jobs for landless laborers on rural roads, plants trees, and protects slopes to mitigate against future flood devastation. As a result, income and crop production, disaster prevention infrastructure, and primary school education are improving for the rural poor. In the World Food Program Vulnerable Group Development intervention, 500,000 destitute women per year are provided with assistance, including credit, food rations and training. Local nongovernmental organizations, which are focused on ensuring gender equality and empowerment of women, constitute WFP's principal project partners.

Title II development programs play a critical role in Mozambique's successful emergence from war to a peacetime economy. The Title II programs are implemented by six organizations: Adventist Development and Relief Agency, AFRICARE, CARE, Food for the Hungry, Save the Children, and World Vision. Together they are improving rural food security and the health and nutrition of women and children. In FY 2001, over 65,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat and vegetable oil will be sold to generate local currencies to fund these programs. Programs are benefiting over 300,000 rural households by rapidly improving incomes, agricultural production, new enterprises, and new markets. In addition, programs are upgrading nutritional practices and control of diarrheal diseases while creating sustainable organizations for addressing nutrition and food security at the village level.

Poverty in Guatemala is pervasive and severe. In 1998, two-thirds of indigenous children under five years of age were chronically malnourished. The U.S. Government-funded Title II program is the prime instrument for outreach to the rural indigenous poor. One of the top U.S. Government foreign policy priorities in Guatemala is the success of the 1996 Peace Accords. Title II activities support the peace process. The program's cooperating sponsors, CARE, CRS, Save the Children Federation, and World SHARE will use a total of 73,170 metric tons of commodities in FY 2000. A monthly ration, with an accompanying health and nutrition education program, will be provided to over 85,000 mothers and 100,000 children under the age of three. Food-for-work, benefiting over 80,000 laborers and their dependents, will construct soil conservation structures, community nurseries, watershed protection, and will repair roads, schools, and clinics. A total of 3,000 small loans will be provided to program participants. Furthermore, 16,000 small farmers will be provided with training and technical assistance on agricultural production, small scale irrigation infrastructures, and post-harvest grain storage.

P.L. 480 Title III - Food For Development

Since 1995, P.L.480 Title III programs have been centered on countries most in need of food. Title III programs totaled $21.7 million in FY 1999 and assisted three least developed countries--Ethiopia, Mozambique and Haiti. The FY 1999 funds originally planned for Eritrea have been carried over into FY 2000 where their obligation will depend on the resolution of issues currently under review. The Administration did not request FY 2000 funding for P.L 480 Title III and is also not requesting funding for FY 2001. Additional allocation of funds by country for FY 2000 will be based on further determination, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, of the amount of FY 1999 carry-out and FY 2000 carry-in funds.

P.L. 480 Title V - Farmer-To-Farmer Activities

Titles I, II, and III funds are also used to support the Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) program which provides voluntary technical assistance to farmers, farm groups and agribusinesses to enhance the potential for substantial increases in food production, processing and marketing. Funding for FY 2001 is expected to be about $10.5 million, about the same as for FY 2000. This is slightly less than the $10.9 million levels of FYs 1998 and 1999 due to the declines in funding for Titles I and III. The program relies on volunteers from U.S. farms, land grant universities, cooperatives, private agribusinesses and non-profit organizations. Volunteers have been recruited from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They are not overseas development professionals, but rather individuals who have domestic careers, farms and agribusinesses or are retired and want to participate in development efforts. They spend about a month in the host country on a typical assignment.

In 1991, a special initiative of the FTF program was authorized as one of the first U.S. assistance programs for the New Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union, and it continues to operate in all of the NIS countries. In the worldwide FTF program, 2,500 volunteer assignments have been completed since 1991 in more than 70 countries, while in the NIS program, more than 3,900 assignments have been completed since 1992.

The FTF program is also having a positive impact on the United States by raising public awareness about foreign assistance, correcting misperceptions of life and attitudes in developing countries and helping inform U.S. businesses of the environment and opportunities overseas. From 1996 through 1998, FTF grantees and their returned volunteers made over 1700 presentations to professional and community groups, and participated in almost 500 media events, including radio shows, television interviews, and newspaper articles to share their experiences.

The FTF program leverages a significant amount of non-USAID resources. In the NIS-FTF program, for example, in-kind contributions by host organizations have been about $1,500 per volunteer assignment. U.S. in-kind contributions for every volunteer assignment is valued at more than $7,000. The NIS-FTF program is estimated to leverage additional funding of about 40%.