Tasks ahead for food aid 2. Saving people whose ability to gain access to food has been curtailed is the first principle of humanitarian intervention.
People have to survive before they can benefit from, and contribute to, sustainable development.
People must survive to contribute to development 2.2 Food is a fundamental resource for saving life. There are some emergency situations in which the provision of cash rather than food aid, or the monetization of food commodities to stabilize prices is warranted. Yet, the number of emergencies in which this applies are relatively few, and in most cases hungry women and children, who make up 70 percent of the innocent victims of armed conflict, need direct food assistance. All of this makes the task of tackling hunger more difficult. The total number of refugees has doubled approximately every 6 years since the mid-1970s.