• News
    • Latest news
    • News search
    • Health
    • Finance
    • Food
    • Career news
    • Content series
    • Try Devex Pro
  • Jobs
    • Job search
    • Post a job
    • Employer search
    • CV Writing
    • Upcoming career events
    • Try Career Account
  • Funding
    • Funding search
    • Funding news
  • Talent
    • Candidate search
    • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Events
    • Upcoming and past events
    • Partner on an event
  • Post a job
  • About
      • About us
      • Membership
      • Newsletters
      • Advertising partnerships
      • Devex Talent Solutions
      • Contact us
Join DevexSign in
Join DevexSign in

News

  • Latest news
  • News search
  • Health
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Career news
  • Content series
  • Try Devex Pro

Jobs

  • Job search
  • Post a job
  • Employer search
  • CV Writing
  • Upcoming career events
  • Try Career Account

Funding

  • Funding search
  • Funding news

Talent

  • Candidate search
  • Devex Talent Solutions

Events

  • Upcoming and past events
  • Partner on an event
Post a job

About

  • About us
  • Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising partnerships
  • Devex Talent Solutions
  • Contact us
  • My Devex
  • Update my profile % complete
  • Account & privacy settings
  • My saved jobs
  • Manage newsletters
  • Support
  • Sign out
Latest newsNews searchHealthFinanceFoodCareer newsContent seriesTry Devex Pro
    • News

    Clap: Why Food Aid Convention is Crucial

    By Ma. Rizza Leonzon // 28 February 2011
    Pakistani men carry bags of rations from the World Food Program. Donors are gathering this week for the Food Aid Convention. Photo by: Amjad Jamal / WFP / United Nations

    The future of food aid delivery will be forged this week when donors gather to hammer out details of a new agreement under the Food Aid Convention, an expert says.

    The Food Aid Convention is an international treaty agreed in 1967 under which donors committed a minimum amount of food aid, which is measured in tons of ‘wheat equivalent,’ according to Jennifer Clapp, a professor in the environment and resource studies department at the University of Waterloo.

    “Currently the combined commitment of donors sits at 5.4 million metric tons. There are many indications that donors will press to lower this level or at best maintain it. In the wake of the food crisis, food aid donations dropped precipitously,” Clap writes in the blog “Triple Crisis.”

    This week’s meeting will also tackle possible modifications in measuring donor’s food aid commitments. Using tons of wheat equivalent may be outdated, as some claim, but “the benefit of it has been the provision of minimum amount of food for recipient countries, regardless of food price fluctuations,” Clap notes.

    “If the FAC negotiators reduce their commitments and change the rules on how food aid is counted in the absence of significant changes to agricultural investment and trade practices, the global hunger situation will become much more precarious,” Clap argues.

    Read more development aid news.

    • Humanitarian Aid
    • Agriculture & Rural Development
    Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).

    About the author

    • Ma. Rizza Leonzon

      Ma. Rizza Leonzon

      As a former staff writer, Rizza focused mainly on business coverage, including key donors such as the Asian Development Bank and AusAID.

    Search for articles

    Related Stories

    Food systemsUS-grown food aid is stranded in ports worldwide despite waiver

    US-grown food aid is stranded in ports worldwide despite waiver

    Devex DishDevex Dish: Gaza edges toward famine, with food stuck at the border

    Devex Dish: Gaza edges toward famine, with food stuck at the border

    Devex DishDevex Dish: Has the world reached peak food aid?

    Devex Dish: Has the world reached peak food aid?

    Food SystemsWhat it's like to deliver food aid to war-torn Sudan

    What it's like to deliver food aid to war-torn Sudan

    Most Read

    • 1
      How to use law to strengthen public health advocacy
    • 2
      Lasting nutrition and food security needs new funding — and new systems
    • 3
      House cuts US global education funding 20%, spares multilateral partners
    • 4
      The power of diagnostics to improve mental health
    • 5
      Opinion: The pursuit of remission — from possibility to priority
    • News
    • Jobs
    • Funding
    • Talent
    • Events

    Devex is the media platform for the global development community.

    A social enterprise, we connect and inform over 1.3 million development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities so you can do more good for more people. We invite you to join us.

    • About us
    • Membership
    • Newsletters
    • Advertising partnerships
    • Devex Talent Solutions
    • Post a job
    • Careers at Devex
    • Contact us
    © Copyright 2000 - 2025 Devex|User Agreement|Privacy Statement