To respond to food aid emergencies, USAID can provide emergency food aid commodities through four general delivery processes: standard shipping, overseas prepositioning, domestic prepositioning, or diversion (see fig. 1). USAID determines the most appropriate of these four processes by analyzing the request for food aid, the nature of the emergency, and the availability of commodities and resources. USAID aims to maintain a combined total of up to 100,000 metric tons of food in its prepositioning supply chain at any given time. USAID currently maintains prepositioning warehouses in six overseas locations (Colombo, Sri Lanka; Djibouti, Djibouti; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Durban, South Africa; Las Palmas, Spain; and Mombasa, Kenya) and two domestic locations (Jacinto Port, Texas, and Miami, Florida). In 2007, we reported that U.S. food aid delivery is generally too time consuming to be sufficiently responsive in emergencies, requiring 4 to 6 months on average, including time required for procurement and transportation of the commodities. We recommended, among other things, that USAID conduct a cost-benefit analysis of prepositioning to improve its food aid logistical planning. In 2008, USAID commissioned a cost-benefit analysis of the U.S. government’s food prepositioning activities. The commissioned analysis did not compare the timeliness of domestic and overseas prepositioning; however, it recommended that USAID consider increasing the amount of food aid prepositioned domestically, to improve its response times to critical emergency program needs. In 2013, a report by USAID’s Inspector General found that the agency had not determined whether the benefits of overseas prepositioning in the Horn of Africa outweighed the costs or whether overseas prepositioning saved time in comparison with domestic prepositioning. Prepositioning of emergency food aid reduces the average delivery time frame for USAID’s food aid shipments for WFP and other cooperating sponsors. For WFP, prepositioning food aid in overseas and domestic warehouses shortened delivery time frames by an average of almost a month. For nine of USAID’s other cooperating sponsors, prepositioning food aid in domestic and overseas warehouses shortened delivery time frames by an average of more than 2 months. In addition, diversion of emergency food aid from the prepositioning process shortened delivery time frames by, on average, about 2 months for WFP and the other sponsors. We estimated, using statistical modeling to control for various factors, that prepositioning food in overseas and domestic warehouses shortened the average delivery time frame for shipments for WFP by 28 days in fiscal years 2009 through 2012 compared with USAID’s standard shipping process. As table 1 shows, during this period, the 472 prepositioned shipments for WFP had an average delivery time frame of about 102 days. In contrast, the 1,665 standard shipments for WFP had an average delivery time frame of 135 days. According to WFP officials, USAID’s prepositioning of food in warehouses has helped WFP provide food aid more quickly. WFP officials also stated that because prepositioned food is available for immediate collection from warehouses, prepositioning helps ensure a sufficient food aid supply to meet spikes in demands due to unforeseen emergencies. Although both overseas and domestic prepositioning shortened delivery time frames for WFP, the estimated time savings were larger for overseas prepositioning. As table 1 shows, we estimated, using statistical modeling to control for various factors, that prepositioning food in overseas warehouses saved an average of 41 days compared with USAID’s standard shipping process. We found that prepositioning food in domestic warehouses saved fewer days—an estimated average of 16. We estimated, using statistical modeling to control for various factors, that prepositioning food aid commodities in overseas and domestic warehouses in fiscal years 2007 through 2012 saved an average of about 67 days for nine of USAID’s cooperating sponsors, compared with USAID’s standard shipping process. As table 2 shows, during this period, the average delivery time frame for the 141 prepositioned shipments for these cooperating sponsors was about 87 days. In contrast, the average delivery time frame for the 869 standard shipments was 161 days. Both overseas and domestic prepositioning resulted in time savings, with larger savings from overseas prepositioning. As table 2 shows, after controlling for various factors, we estimated that prepositioning food for these cooperative sponsors in overseas warehouses saved an average of 73 days relative to USAID’s standard shipping process. We also estimated that, relative to the standard shipping process, prepositioning food in domestic warehouses saved USAID an average of 62 days. While prepositioning of food aid shortens delivery time frames, it has some disadvantages, according to one cooperating sponsor’s representative whom we interviewed. For example, the representative noted that although overseas prepositioning makes commodities available for immediate collection and thus saves time, handling of prepositioned commodities by multiple parties can lead to losses due to damage during the transit from prepositioning warehouse to discharge port. In addition, prepositioned commodities may be comingled in the warehouse, making it difficult to identify infestation problems in a particular shipment of commodities. The cooperating sponsor’s representative further noted that prepositioned commodities may have to be fumigated several times if they remain in the warehouse for months; if the commodities are overexposed to the fumigation chemicals, they can no longer be used for food aid. We estimated, using statistical modeling to control for various factors, that diversion of emergency food aid from the prepositioning process shortened the average delivery time frame by about 64 days in fiscal years 2007 through 2012 compared with USAID’s standard shipping process (see table 3). During this period, the average delivery time frame for the 568 diverted shipments was about 76 days. In contrast, the average delivery time frame for the 938 standard shipments was 156 days. According to USAID officials, prepositioning of emergency food aid allows for greater flexibility to divert food assistance when necessary to meet immediate needs. The officials further stated that, because the U.S. government retains ownership of prepositioned food aid, USAID does not have to replace diverted commodities. In contrast, when food aid is shipped under the standard process, non-governmental cooperating sponsors usually take ownership of commodities before they are shipped, and depending on the availability of commodities and resources, USAID may decide to replace diverted shipments. USAID has diverted commodities before and after they left the U.S. port and at all points in the procurement, transportation, or shipping process. Our analysis shows that in fiscal years 2007 through 2012, an average of 80 days elapsed between USAID’s ordering commodities for prepositioning and diverting the commodities. The smallest number of days between USAID’s ordering and diverting commodities was 6 days, and the largest number of days was 163. Our analysis also shows that larger number of days between USAID’s ordering and diverting commodities are associated with shorter delivery time frames. USAID pays additional costs for prepositioning of emergency food aid, compared with standard shipping. For both overseas and domestic prepositioning, USAID incurs additional warehouse costs that it does not incur for standard shipments. USAID also incurs additional shipping costs due to a second leg of ocean shipping from overseas prepositioning warehouses to foreign discharge ports. Furthermore, USAID often pays higher weighted annual average prices for domestically prepositioned commodities than it does for standard shipment commodities. USAID incurs various additional costs to store prepositioned food in overseas and domestic prepositioning warehouses, depending on the quantity of food stored and the duration of the storage. In contrast, for standard shipments of emergency food aid, USAID transports the food directly from U.S. ports to recipient countries. The cost per day for food storage at USAID’s six overseas prepositioning warehouses averaged $0.25 per ton in fiscal years 2011 and 2012; the longer food is stored at the prepositioning warehouses, the higher the storage costs. In fiscal years 2011 and 2012, USAID expended approximately half of the annual $10 million authorized by the fiscal year 2008 Farm Bill for overseas warehouse costs. Warehouse costs include, in addition to food storage, storage of nonfood items (e.g., bags, pallets, and cartons) and payment of warehouse operators for handling commodities (e.g., unloading trailers and loading bulk commodities). To help ensure that its total costs for overseas prepositioning warehouses do not exceed the ceiling authorized by Congress, USAID sets annual cost targets for each warehouse that total $8.5 million. In fiscal year 2011, USAID expended approximately $5.4 million—about 54 percent of its annual ceiling—for food storage and other costs for its overseas prepositioning warehouses. In fiscal year 2012, USAID expended about $4.6 million—about 46 percent of its annual ceiling. Table 4 shows USAID’s annual targets and total expenditures for its overseas prepositioning warehouses in fiscal years 2011 and 2012. In addition, USAID expended $2.0 million in 2011 and $3.1 million in fiscal year 2012 for its domestic prepositioning warehouse in Jacinto Port. However, these expenditures did not count against the $10 million ceiling set by the 2008 Farm Bill. USAID incurs additional shipping costs when overseas prepositioning requires a second leg of ocean shipping, from the overseas prepositioning warehouses to the final discharge ports. Although the first leg of ocean shipping—from a U.S. port to the overseas warehouse—is comparable to ocean transport for standard shipping, the second leg does not exist in the standard shipping process.