Towards a Revised Food Aid Charter

• The Food Aid Charter

• A Revised Version

• The Revision Process

• Next Steps

In response to the recommendations put forward by the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA), the SWAC is facilitating with the CILSS the evaluation and revision process of the Food Aid Charter in the Sahel and West Africa.

  The Food Aid Charter

The  Food Aid Charter adopted in 1990 by Heads of State of CILSS member countries and contributing members of the Club du Sahel/OECD is a code of conduct which has provided significant impacts with regard to food crises prevention and management in the Sahel. The Charter defines the basic principles that food aid donors and national authorities of Sahelian States agree to respect in order to circumvent negative effects of this aid.

> Food Aid Charter (1990)

  A Revised Version

The Food Aid Charter was elaborated in the context of drought crises and famines in the 1980s. The Code of Good Conduct in Food Crisis Prevention and Management needed to be adapted to new food security challenges and enlarge its geographic coverage to the whole West African region. In particular, the revised version needs to respond to the following evolutions:

• Entrance of new donors on to the scene who did not sign the Charter in 1990 as well as civil society groups determinedly involved in food security;
• Evolution of the nature of food crises and instruments with which to manage them;
• The need to take into account the responsibility of inter-governmental organisations in addition to that of the States.

This draft version was produced with inputs from various food security experts and will serve as basis for discussions with the various actors with the aim of reaching a consensus and adopting the Revised Food Aid Charter. 

> Revised Food Aid Charter (draft August 2008)

  The Revision Process

The revision is based on the retrospective evaluation of the application of the Food Aid Charter and a prospective thinking about the evolution of the context in which food crisis develop and the new issues at stake that the countries of the region, socio‐professional actors, NGOs and donors will have to face in the future.

Three principles were agreed upon to guide the revision of the Charter to:

• Combine the concern of keeping a Charter focused on food aid while considering the concern of innovation and openness in line with the evolution of current and future issues and stakes;
• Put emphasis on principles which are easily applicable and measurable;
• Take into account the new situations of non-Sahelian West African countries and include the issue of food crisis prevention and management into the context of sub-regional integration across the entire region.

Phase 1:  Assessment & Analysis of the New Context

The SWAC/CILSS conducted a general reflection on the new food security context. The new issues at stake cover thematic dimensions (diversification and increased complexity of crisis, diversification of tools for responding to these crises, etc.), geographic dimensions (Sahel/West Africa) and institutional aspects (ascendancy of new actors, strengthening of regional integration institutions).

> New Contexts and Food Security Issues in the Sahel and West Africa (French) 

In order to get a better understanding of the use and application of the Food Aid Charter by donors and the beneficiary countries, three CILSS member states were reviewed: Chad, Mali and Mauritania. The case of the Niger crisis in 2004/05 is also analysed. These assessments provided new inputs for the Charter’s revision process.

> Review of the Food Aid Charter's Application in the Sahel: 2001-2006 (French)

Preliminary analyses and various other inputs from relevant food security experts lead to the drafting of the revised version of the Food Aid Charter.

Phase 2:   Consultation, Negotiation and Adoption

The draft revised instrument will be the subject of consultation at national, regional and international levels involving the diversity of actors in the Sahelian countries and some West African coastal countries. This process shall be as participative as possible with regard to achieving consensus on a revised, applicable, realistic and assessable Food Aid Charter.