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Calls to reform Food Aid Convention

JOHANNESBURG: Calls for reforming a treaty that makes donor countries commit to providing food aid in cash as well as in kind were reiterated as a high-level two-day meeting to discuss the global food crisis began on Monday, 26 January in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

By global food crisis

27 Jan 2009

The treaty, the Food Aid Convention (FAC), first signed in 1967, does not ensure that aid will get to the neediest countries, or that it will be of the right kind, or that it will be made available at the right time, said Frederic Mousseau, policy advisor at the development agency, Oxfam Great Britain, which called for reforms to the treaty.

The FAC was set up to fight hunger, but poor countries and aid agencies are struggling to respond to the current food price crisis. In 2008, when food prices peaked to record levels, the World Food Programme (WFP) had to increase its beneficiaries to about 100 million a year.

Read the full article on IRIN.