Africa's food aid declines
2008-05-29 19:05
Washington - International food aid to Africa has declined in recent years and is unlikely to meet a goal set by the world's wealthiest countries of cutting hunger on the continent in half by 2015, US congressional investigators have found.
In the early 1980s, about 15% of all global food aid flowed to Africa, but that share declined to 4% by 2006, said a report by the Government Accountability Office.
At the same time, the number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has grown from 170 million to more than 200 million.
The food aid that has gone to Africa - particularly from the US - has increasingly been to alleviate short-term emergencies rather than to address underlying problems that hamper long-term agricultural development, GAO found.
US development aid has declined over the past five years while emergency food aid has spiked, it said.
- AP