Using Project Food Aid to Help Alleviate Urban Poverty - Experience and Issues

As urban poverty in the Third World worsens, an increasing proportion of World Food Programme (WFP) food aid is being used to support poor urban dwellers. WFP food aid has typically been used in three main ways in urban areas: as free relief after disasters (such as floods or earthquakes) have struck urban centres; as part of institutional feeding projects; and as support to urban renewal. While there have been some creative approaches to using food aid to help overcome urban poverty, the benefits have usually only been temporary. It has proved difficult to design food aid interventions for the urban poor that help to overcome the causes of poverty in sustainable ways. The challenge is to use food aid to help make permanent as well as temporary improvements in the lives and livelihoods of the poor.