Fintrac Harvest Fall/Winter 2008

Fintrac awarded contract to improve food aid analysis

WASHINGTON – In advance of shipping US agriculture commodities under its Title II program, the USAID Office of Food for Peace is required by law to provide a determination that food aid will do no harm to the producer and marketing systems of a recipient country. Toward this end, USAID/FFP contracted out the analyses required to make its determinations over the years to a variety of organizations. The 2008 Farm Bill, however, mandated that these analytical responsibilities be consolidated and conducted by a single, independent entity and USAID/FFP responded with the BellmonEstimation Studies for Title II (BEST) project.

As the BEST awardee, Fintrac is implementing a new approach to conducting food aid determination studies by improving research processes, analytical methodologies and reporting formats. The quantitative and qualitative information collected and synthesized into these impact reports will also be consolidated into a knowledge management and decision support system, so that data can be retained and easily referenced for future US government decisions regarding food aid distribution and monetization.

The Fintrac/BEST team is based in Washington D.C., adjacent to the Fintrac home office, and its core team of agricultural economists, market analysts, and knowledge management experts is augmented by trade specialists in target countries and by an Advisory Panel comprised of leaders from the food aid sector, the NGO community and academia. The three-year project, awarded in August, has completed its first two studies in Malawi and Madagascar.