What is the contribution of international assistance and cooperation to the realization of the right to food?

Development cooperation and food aid increasingly form a continuum ranging from interventions aimed at providing long-term support for food security to short-term answers to emergency situations. Both these policies have been under increased scrutiny in recent years, and both are in need of reform. How can we reorientate them by better integrating a perspective grounded in the human right to adequate food? What should be done? The Special Rapporteur looks at the tree levels: the definition of the obligations of donor States; the identification of the tools these policies rely on; and the evaluation of such policies, with a view to their continuous improvement.

At its core, a human rights approach turns what has been a bilateral relationship between donor and partner, into a triangular relationship, in which the ultimate beneficiaries of these policies play an active role. But seeing the provision of international assistance and cooperation as a means to fulfill the human right to adequate food also has concrete implications, which follow from seeing donor and partner governments are duty-bearers, and beneficiaries as rights-holders.

	account of the discussions during the expert consultation held in Ottawa with the support of Rights & Democracy and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank on 6 November 2008.
	working paper prepared for the Global Donor Platform (November 2008)
	full report to be presented at the HRC in March 2009