Food Aid

Improving Economic and Market Development Impact in African Countries Gao ID: NSIAD-88-55 December 21, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO examined the economic and market development impact of Public Law 83-480 food aid to four African countries.

GAO found that: (1) U.S. agricultural and foreign policy interests, weak agreement provisions, and recipient governments' failure to fully implement some agreement provisions weakened developmental benefits; (2) long-term impact on the economy was difficult to measure; (3) self-help measures should be more measurable and better focused on economic development objectives; and (4) the Agency for International Development's (AID) missions have not fully complied with requirements for monitoring and reporting on recipient governments' implementation of the programs. GAO also found that food programs have provided humanitarian assistance, but inadequate private voluntary organization (PVO) management limited efforts to alleviate malnutrition and poverty. In addition, GAO found that: (1) AID mission staff have other duties which they perceive as having a higher priority; (2) economic problems have precluded the African countries from progressing to the point of financing imports on commercial terms; and (3) improvements in AID planning and oversight could enhance both programs' benefits.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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