The effect of official development assistance on food security in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Despite persistently high levels of food insecurity in SSA and large annual ODA flows from North to South to support economic and social development, very little research to date has analysed the link between the two phenomena. In this article, we analyse the effect of ODA on food security in 36 Sub-Saharan African countries. We answer these questions using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). From this analysis, we find that aid has a positive effect on food security, reinforced by the presence of good governance. Furthermore, we find that multilateral aid more directly supports food security than bilateral aid in countries with better governance. We conclude with several relevant policy recommendations, the most important of which is that donors should take greater care in determining which types of aid are suitable for which countries, locations and specific development goals.

Keywords: Official Development Assistance, Food Security, Governance, Sub-Saharan Africa, GMM method.

Classification JEL: O24, MO21

Paper type: Empirical Research