however past experience suggests that a study of best practices in stockholding for emergency situations may provide useful information for capacity building in those countries most concerned about food security one of the major international responses to commodity market volatility in the past has been compensatory financing such as what was provided through the european union s systeme de stabilisation des recettes d exportation stabex to acp countries and the compensatory financing facility of the international monetary fund imf both programmes aimed to provide compensatory finance to help countries avoid a negative impact on growth from sharp commodity price changes during the recent price surge a number of countries which experienced significant increases in their food and fertiliser import bills resorted to the exogenous shock facility esf of the imf