Number 8, November 2009
briefing paper
U.S. Foreign Assistance Reform:
Food Security and Poverty Reduction
by John W. Mellor1
www.bread.org
USAID Agriculture Funding Trends, Fiscal Years 1982-2009
$1,400
Current Thousand Dollars
$1,200
$1,000
$800
$600
$400
$200
$0
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Bread for the World Institute provides
policy analysis on hunger and strategies
to end it. The Institute educates its advocacy network, opinion leaders, policy
makers and the public about hunger in
the United States and abroad.
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* *
82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 03 05 06 07 08 09
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
Fiscal Year
* 2008 and 2009 provisional data
Source: USAID
Key Points
• U.S. aid programs should re-focus on catalyzing sustained, broad-based economic
growth and poverty reduction instead of just supporting relatively small, selfcontained projects.
• Along with this must be a renewed emphasis on developing the educational,
research and policy institutions on which sustained development depends.
• Agricultural development is fundamental to poverty reduction, and is heavily
dependent on public goods and public institutions.
• U.S. aid should invest in agriculture and related interventions to improve
aggregate growth and poverty reduction over the long term.
• Long-term training of developing country nationals is essential for building
capacity of key institutions.
• Rebuilding of USAID’s technical competence, especially in agriculture, must be
a high priority.
Abstract
In the last few decades, U.S. foreign assistance has largely supported a collection of disparate projects
and interventions rather than a
coherent, consistent program that
is flexible and responsive to conditions in developing countries. As
a result, it has not had a transformative impact at the country level.
USAID should once again focus attention on broad-based measures
and approaches that will improve
agricultural and economic growth
rates, and reduce poverty at the
national level. This will involve
renewed emphasis on agriculture
and rural development, women’s
participation in the economy,
education, infrastructure and capable national institutions and
will require a much more deliberate development strategy carried
out over a longer time horizon.
To plan and implement such a
strategy, USAID urgently needs to
rebuild its technical capacity, especially in agriculture, rural development and economics that has been
allowed to diminish over the past
decades.