Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 02/2013

Effective Ways of Linking Relief and Rural Development: Oxfam's experience of implementing programmes using EU Food Facility funds

John Magrath

December 2012

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

Aid is often criticised for breaking 'humanitarian' and 'development' aid into silos; EU aid is often criticised for being overly bureaucratic. Both criticisms are largely unfounded in the case of the EU Food Facility (EUFF) which was set up in response to the 2008 food price spike which threatened millions of people with hunger. Oxfam implemented several EUFF-funded programmes and our evaluations back EU findings that this was an innovative and effective method of combining relief, rehabilitation and development, and one that should be extended in the light of likely future food price volatility.