A/HRC/37/61 vulnerable and disadvantaged children “even in situations of economic crisis, natural disasters or other emergencies”.83 76. Finally, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has created informal working groups to monitor the protection of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters.84 V. Food assistance and the role of the international community History and structure 77. Food assistance is one of the oldest forms of international support and it has saved many lives during severe humanitarian crises. It is a remedy for emergency situations, to provide food for those who are caught in the midst of a disaster situation. 78. At the same time, poorly designed, charity-based food aid can do more harm than good, can have negative effects on small-scale farmers in recipient countries by exerting downward pressure on domestic food prices, and can adversely affect trade, production incentives and labour markets. In some cases, food aid practices might even violate the right to food, if the food aid were distributed unfairly or if the most vulnerable were not prioritized. Food aid should serve the best interests of recipient country’s food and agricultural policy, provide long-term livelihoods for people and uphold environmental best practices. The very simplistic “if people are hungry, we should simply give them food” argument, which is frequently heard, is an example of inappropriate use of food aid. 85 Volunteerism with respect to food assistance is also humiliating to the recipients, and by definition inconsistent and frequently manipulated for political gain. 79. In the 1950s, food aid was dominated by the United States, Canada and Australia, which together accounted for over 90 per cent of the total. During the cold war, international commitments to food aid were only partly about humanitarianism, being often driven by high-priority geopolitical and economic interests. The food aid programmes of that era largely provided grain in the form of bulk commodities — often agricultural surpluses that were accumulating in donor countries. 86 80. In the 1970s, the European Community and Japan also began to provide international food aid. Since then, the European Union has become the second-largest food aid donor. One third of the European Union’s annual humanitarian aid budget is used to provide emergency food assistance. The European Union has a flexible policy that it adapts to specific cases by providing cash-based as well as in-kind assistance. 81. Although official development assistance (ODA), emergency humanitarian aid, food aid and food assistance have different targets, priorities and funding, and are run by different organizational structures, all three programmes have significant impacts on the local economy, on the local agricultural structure, and on people’s right to food, both individually and as a community. Most of the time, long-term recipients of ODA and food aid/assistance become dependent in ways that impede balanced, sustainable development. 82. Over the last 50 years, the character of food aid policies and practices has changed, in parallel to global structural changes in agriculture and changing geopolitical conditions. Firstly, the absolute value and relative importance of food aid has declined dramatically. In the 1960s, food aid represented approximately 20 per cent of all ODA, but by the early 2000s that figure had fallen to about 5 per cent.87 83 84 85 86 87 Ibid., p. 29. Ibid. Christopher B. Barrett and Daniel G. Maxwell, Food Aid After Fifty Years: Recasting its Role (New York, Routledge, 2005). Jennifer Clapp, Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid (Cornell University Press, 2012). Jennifer Clapp, “Food aid”, Handbook of Globalisation and Development (2017), p. 394. 15