International Food Aid: U.S. and Other Donor Contributions

Publication Date: October 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: International relations

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Abstract:

The United States is the world's major provider of international food aid to lowincome developing countries. This report provides three indicators of the U.S. contribution to global food aid: (1) shipments of major donors compiled by the International Grains Council, (2) U.S. contributions to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), and (3) the U.S. commitment under the Food Aid Convention (FAC).

U.S. food aid accounted for 59% of food aid shipments by major donors during 1995-2005. A substantial portion of U.S. food aid is channeled through the WFP. During 1996-2004, around 48% of the food aid distributed by the WFP came from the United States. The Food Aid Convention (FAC), now expired, was an agreement among donor countries to provide a minimum amount of food aid to low-income developing countries. The food aid commitment by all FAC signatories was approximately 4.9 million metric tons (mmt). The United States pledged to provide 2.5 mmt or 51% of the total commitment.