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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM HUMANITARIAN RELIEFup <strong>to</strong> 40 per cent in Canada’s case in 2004, which helped <strong>to</strong> prompt apolicy change <strong>to</strong> allow increased local sourcing. 181 In addition, a third ofthe global food aid budget is wasted because the USA insists on processingfood aid domestically and shipping it via national carriers. 182 AnOECD study found that the actual costs of tied food aid transfers wereon average approximately 50 per cent higher than local food purchasesand 33 per cent more costly than procurement of food in thirdcountries (so-called triangular transactions). 183 An extra $750m ayear in aid for poor countries could be released if rich countries,particularly the USA, gave food aid as cash instead of in kind.Where food is available on local markets, food aid can also bedemeaning: evaluations of cash-transfer schemes show that peopleprefer cash <strong>to</strong> soup kitchens because cash provides a greater choiceover spending priorities and respects their dignity, rather than treatingthem as passive beneficiaries. When people use the cash <strong>to</strong> buyagricultural inputs, it also helps <strong>to</strong> improve livelihoods and boost thelocal economy (see Part 4). 184Three of the four major donors – the EU, Canada, and Australia –have promised <strong>to</strong> use food aid more judiciously and <strong>to</strong> increase theproportion they buy in developing countries, rather than source itfrom home. 185 Largely due <strong>to</strong> the lobbying of agribusiness and shippinginterests, the USA remains defiant and, as the supplier of more than 50per cent of the world’s food aid, continues <strong>to</strong> dis<strong>to</strong>rt the world’sresponse <strong>to</strong> crises.Short-term solutions for long-term problems: As discussed in Part4, there is increasing recognition that much of the vulnerability experiencedby poor people and communities is actually chronic ratherthan event-driven, and needs <strong>to</strong> be dealt with through national governmentsocial protection systems, supported by international aid,rather than through short-term humanitarian assistance. This blursthe boundaries between ‘emergencies’ and ‘development’, but it alsomore accurately reflects real life for millions of people living on theedge of poverty.Recognition of these failings has prompted a spate of initiatives inrecent years aimed at turning the international humanitarian systemin<strong>to</strong> something closer <strong>to</strong> the co-ordinated response of a modernwelfare state. The UN has introduced a ‘cluster approach’, nominating389

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