Maximizing effectiveness of PL 480 Title II in the LAC region : implications of the 1990 legislation, lessons learned from the 1980s and opportunities in the 1990s

The law mandates that food aid focus on the issues of global food security, child survival, and the use of private channels in providing food aid; it also liberalizes provisions for implementing food aid. This report summarizes the law"s implications for the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region vis-a-vis the experience learned from past programs. Major findings are as follows. (1) The LAC Bureau lacks a Title II strategy. The Bureau has little communication with the PVO"s that implement Title II projects. Most LAC Missions fail to include PVO program objectives in their strategic planning, and sometimes look on PVO objectives as alien to those of A.I.D., while some PVO"s see A.I.D. policy objectives as exclusively macro-oriented. (2) Better targeting is needed. Although overall coverage of the under-5 population is surprising good (about 40%), this average masks a range of from 96% in Chile to only 2% in Haiti. Nor has good coverage always translated to reduced malnutrition, suggesting that those most in need are not being reached, and/or the services are inadequate. In their attempts to stretch budgets and lower per-beneficiary costs, PVO"s have given too much attention to delivering food to the most concentrated, accessible populations. Currently, less than 50% of Title II food goes for Maternal/Child Health Programs, the balance going to School Feeding, Food for Work, and Other Child Feeding Programs. A still unresolved problem is that MCH programs almost exclusively provide dry rations which are taken home and shared in the household; program implementors are not sure how much of this food reaches nutritionally vulnerable small children and at risk women. (3) There is growing interest in ensuring sustainable program impact by planning for eventual phaseover to local agencies. Many PVO"s feel that the LAC Bureau and Missions do not yet perceive food aid as a development resource. (4) Quality issues, e.g., providing food aid with high economic and caloric values, ensuring that it reaches those most at risk, and effecting eventual changeover to local foods, require continued study and trial. Attention should also be given to testing of coupon schemes (as alternatives to direct feeding), nutrition eduction methodologies, and incorporation of non-food components in food programs. (5) As Mission staffs shrink, umbrella schemes and the use of improved PVO reporting systems are two possible solutions to the need to monitor indigenous PVO"s while upgrading their capabilities. Existing systems of reporting and impact assessment are inadequate. Household-level dietary surveys could be a relatively simple means of obtaining information on program achievements and impacts.