Local and regional procurement (LRP) of food aid is often claimed to lead to quicker and more cost-effective response. We generate timeliness and cost-effectiveness estimates by comparing US-funded LRP activities in nine countries against in-kind, transoceanic food aid shipments from the US to...

This document provides the Decision Tree Tool itself for the analysis of response options - cash, local purchase or imported food aid. The framework is kept simple for ease of communication: a sequence of specific questions to be answered, each matched with data needs and diagnostic tools...

This paper attempts to build on that framework to develop practical tools for field decision makers, although these decision tools are related specifically to the question of a food access shortfall at the household level, which may be related to a food availability shortfall at market, regional...

This paper develops an integrated model of the food aid distribution chain, from donor appropriations through operational agency programming decisions to household consumption choices. We use this model to simulate alternative policies and to perform sensitivity analysis to establish how varying...

Food aid is no longer the only, or even the dominant, response to widespread food insecurity. Donors, governments, NGOs and recipient communities exhibit rapidly growing interest in and experimentation with cash-based alternatives, both in the form of direct cash distribution to food insecure...

This paper uses an unprecedentedly rich data set to estimate the cost of agricultural cargo preference (ACP) restrictions on United States food aid programs, and to document some of the programs' competitiveness and national security impacts. ACP cost U.S. taxpayers $140 million in 2006, 46%...

The prevailing definition of food security, agreed upon at the 1996 World Food Summit, is "a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active...

Food security is inherently unobservable and difficult to define, but both intrinsically and instrumentally important. Humans have a physiological need for the nutrients supplied by food. Food is therefore a crucial input into performance and well-being. Many development programs, projects and...