A World Food Reserve

MAC/WFY

Page-41

0230_553559_09_cha05

report acknowledged that much more still remained to be done. It listed the main
requirements as follows:

Before the event:

· build up health and physical resistance;
· national food stocks of adequate composition and scale;
· adequate storage facilities and location of stocks with a view to relief strategy;
· develop effective administration, distribution, and transport facilities;
· efficient apparatus for early detection.

In the case of emergency:

· speed of relief operations;
· immediate availability of funds for financing relief supplies;
· adequate economic controls to prevent speculation and hoarding and to

provide for priority needs.

The main responsibility for most of these aspects rested with national govern-

ments. Effective advanced provision for supplementary international action, if
needed, should also be made to ensure that disasters were averted or mitigated.
International aid could also help governments in needy countries in strengthening
their own defences and preparedness against future emergencies.

A world emergency food reserve

The two main aspects covered in post-war intergovernmental studies and resolu-
tions on international famine relief were (a) procedures for detection and appeal;
and (b) the possibility of creating a world emergency food reserve to be drawn
on when international assistance was requested. In defining a situation in which
international relief would be called for, the UN and FAO distinguished between
causes and circumstances. A UN General Assembly resolution of 1952, which called
for the establishment of procedures to deal with famine emergencies arising from
natural causes, referred to `emergency famines

created by crop failure due to

plague, drought, flood, blight, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and similar acci-
dents of a natural character' (UN, 1952a). The UN secretary-general, in a report to
ECOSOC in the same year, commented that famine emergencies arising from the
aftermath of war and civil disturbances were excluded from the resolution. The
FAO Conference and Council endorsed these definitions in principle but suggested
some degree of flexibility in applying them, as in situations where an emergency
was exacerbated by the lethal combination of war and natural causes such as
drought. A working party was appointed by the FAO Council in 1952 `to study
and explore suitable ways and means whereby an emergency food reserve can be
established and made available promptly to member states threatened or affected
by serious food shortages or famine' (FAO, 1951).

The working party concluded that it would be advantageous to reconsider the

definition based on further study of the origin of famines and of the relative

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Useful links	A World Food Reserve MAC/WFY Page-41 0230_553559_09_cha05 A World Food Reserve 41 report acknowledged that much more still remained to be done. It listed the main requirements as follows: Before the event: · build up health and physical resistance; · national food stocks of adequate composition and scale; · adequate storage facilities and location of stocks with a view to relief strategy; · develop effective administration, distribution, and transport facilities; · efficient apparatus for early detection. In the case of emergency: · speed of relief operations; · immediate availability of funds for financing relief supplies; · adequate economic controls to prevent speculation and hoarding and to provide for priority needs. The main responsibility for most of these aspects rested with national govern- ments. Effective advanced provision for supplementary international action, if needed, should also be made to ensure that disasters were averted or mitigated. International aid could also help governments in needy countries in strengthening their own defences and preparedness against future emergencies. 14 A world emergency food reserve The two main aspects covered in post-war intergovernmental studies and resolu- tions on international famine relief were (a) procedures for detection and appeal; and (b) the possibility of creating a world emergency food reserve to be drawn on when international assistance was requested. In defining a situation in which international relief would be called for, the UN and FAO distinguished between causes and circumstances. A UN General Assembly resolution of 1952, which called for the establishment of procedures to deal with famine emergencies arising from natural causes, referred to `emergency famines created by crop failure due to plague, drought, flood, blight, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and similar acci- dents of a natural character' (UN, 1952a). The UN secretary-general, in a report to ECOSOC in the same year, commented that famine emergencies arising from the aftermath of war and civil disturbances were excluded from the resolution. The FAO Conference and Council endorsed these definitions in principle but suggested some degree of flexibility in applying them, as in situations where an emergency was exacerbated by the lethal combination of war and natural causes such as drought. A working party was appointed by the FAO Council in 1952 `to study and explore suitable ways and means whereby an emergency food reserve can be established and made available promptly to member states threatened or affected by serious food shortages or famine' (FAO, 1951). 15 The working party concluded that it would be advantageous to reconsider the definition based on further study of the origin of famines and of the relative back to top Next page
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