The effect of un-conditional food assistance on household food security

Abstract

This study focused on examining the effect of un-conditional food assistance on household food security in Nyalath Payam: a case study of Aweil Centre County, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State, South Sudan. The study exclusively centred on establishing types of food assistance provided to vulnerable households, determining the current level of households‟ food security, establish the effect of unconditional food assistance on household food security and to suggest viable strategies to improve households‟ food security in Nyalath Payam, Aweil Centre County. The study adopts an exploratory qualitative case study research design geared to generating an in-depth understanding of complex issues surrounding unconditional food assistance and household food security. This research was interacted with a total of 35 respondents with gender factored in all the data collection approaches used. There were 14 respondents for KII, 15 FGDs. With the exception of biodata, a simple descriptive statistical and thematic qualitative data analysis was performed to explore the variables determining the effects of unconditional food assistance to display key findings. The study indicates that unconditional food assistance was doing more harm than good. Disorientation, spirit of idleness, conflict over the assistance and dependency marred the interventions that involved free food assistance. The findings explained under objective I various modalities were used in provision of food assistance to Nyalath Community. These included General Food Distribution (GFD), Food for Assets Creation (FFA), Blanket Supplementary Feeding Program (BSFP), School Feeding/Girls‟ Incentives (SF/GI). In addition, objective II presented that households‟ food security was so dire given to number of factors the area underwent in the last agriculture seasons. Besides, objective III portrayed the negative outcomes of unconditional food assistance. Unconditional food assistance kills the spirit and zeal to engage in productive activities in the community, created idleness for many households, household may decide not to cultivate because they hope to receive free food, reduced personal capacity in producing own food. These include corruption over food aid assistance, exclusivity or deprivation of the most vulnerable persons during targeting and distributions. The research also registered that little or no extension capacity services for smallholder farmers, and minimal subsidy to the markets through importing grains from Sudan were offered. In summary unconditional food assistance could be re-adjusted by redesigning assistance modality to conditional one for the purposes of mitigating the effects and maximizing the benefits of food aid.