Global Food Security: The U.S. Strategy under Development Should Address Data Weaknesses and Mitigate Risks Posed by A Host Country-Led Approach
By Thomas Melito, Director, International Affairs and Trade, Government Accountability Office (GAO)
[The following commentary summarizes GAO’s March 2010 report, Global Food Security: U.S. Agencies Progressing on Governmentwide Strategy, but Approach Faces Several Vulnerabilities (GAO-10-352). This report is one of a series of reviews on international food assistance that GAO has conducted since 2007, on topics including the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. food aid programs, local and regional procurement of food aid, and monitoring of nonemergency food aid programs. Dr. Melito has testified several times before Congress on these issues, most recently on U.S. agencies’ efforts to address global food insecurity.]
Global hunger continues to worsen and more than 1 billion people are estimated to be undernourished worldwide. The international community has set ambitious goals toward halving global hunger by 2015, and major donors, including the United States, have made a commitment to increase aid for agriculture and food security by $22 billion in the next 3 years. In a recent report (GAO-10-352), we examined (1) the types and funding levels of global food security programs and activities of U.S. agencies and (2) progress in developing an integrated governmentwide strategy to address global food insecurity and the strategy’s potential vulnerabilities.
We found that the U.S. government supports a wide variety of programs and activities for global food security, but lacks readily available comprehensive data on funding. Seven U.S. agencies together directed at least $5 billion in fiscal year 2008 to global food security, with food aid accounting for about half of that funding. However, the actual total level of funding is probably greater. Our estimate does not account for all U.S. government funds targeting global food insecurity because the agencies lack (a) a commonly accepted governmentwide operational definition of global food security at the program level for planning and budgeting purposes, and (b) data management systems for tracking and reporting food security funding comprehensively and consistently.
We also found that the administration is in the process of finalizing a governmentwide global food security strategy, but its efforts are vulnerable to data weaknesses and risks associated with the strategy’s host country-led approach. The administration has established interagency coordination mechanisms at headquarters and is expected to release an implementation document and a results framework shortly. However, the lack of readily available program and funding data may impair the success of the new strategy because it deprives decisionmakers of information on available resources, actual cost data, and a firm baseline against which to plan. Moreover, the host country-led approach—although promising—has three key vulnerabilities. First, the weak capacity of host governments raises questions regarding their ability to absorb significant increases in donor funding and to sustain donor-initiated projects over time. Second, a shortage of expertise in agriculture and food security at U.S. agencies could constrain efforts to help strengthen host government capacity and guide in-country activities. And third, policy differences between host governments and donors, including the United States, may complicate efforts to align donor assistance with host government strategies.
To enhance U.S. efforts to address global food insecurity, we recommended that the Secretary of State (1) develop an operational definition of food security, establish a methodology for consistently reporting comprehensive data, and periodically inventory food security-related programs and costs governmentwide; and (2) collaborate with other agency heads to finalize a governmentwide strategy that specifies measures to mitigate the risks associated with the host country-led approach. The agencies generally concurred with our recommendations.
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