Food aid allocation policies: coordination and responsiveness to recipient country needs

Abstract

Abstract We employ censored least absolute deviations and multivariate Tobit estimators to investigate whether food aid flows from the main donor countries respond to recipient country needs as reflected in low food availability, low income, or both. We also explore the hypothesis that donor countries specifically coordinate their food aid shipments to recipient countries. Our findings show that food aid in aggregate and from each donor is significantly targeted at poorer countries and is highly persistent over time. Food aid responses to food availability shortfalls, natural disasters, and violent conflicts are common but more modest and uneven across donors. Finally, we find strong evidence of donor coordination in food aid allocation.